[asterisk-users] Skype For Asterisk (SFA): any replacement?

[A J Stiles]

On Thursday 01 December 2011, Hans Witvliet wrote:
> On Thu, 2011-12-01 at 14:02 +0000, A J Stiles wrote:
> > On Thursday 01 December 2011, gincantalupo wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > > 
> > > any idea about how to replace Skype For Asterisk?
> > > 
> > > Thank You.
> > > 
> > > Giorgio
> > 
> > 1.  Migrate your Skype users over to a better product which supports
> > proper open standards.
> 
> perhaps you missed it, but the installed base of skype is unfortunately
> slightly (,,,) larger than the amount of peope that are using a decent
> product. Alas

Then it's simply a bigger job than the original suggestion made it seem.

When -- not if -- Skype give up supporting their anti-telecommunications 
product altogether, every single one of those users is going to be left in the 
lurch.

And that might be the critical mass that brings on the revolution.  We can 
only hope  :)


> > 2.  Write to your elected representatives asking that they order Skype to
> > release documentation on their protocols to allow third party
> > interoperability (as is already required under EU law).
> 
> 3. make it a offence to use any closed source products like skype. >;-)
> Huge fines, jail centences or worse.
> [How about an appendice to the Thora, Quran or Bible, even better,
> forbid it by the sharia]

You may jest, but now you are seeing *EXACTLY* why closed, proprietary 
standards are a bad idea -- something I have been saying almost ever since 
Skype was first launched.

Note, not necessarily closed *source*, but closed *standards*.  The two are 
easily confused, but not quite the same.  An Open Source program can only ever 
implement open standards, since the Source Code implicitly documents the 
standards.  But Closed Source programs can, and often do, implement open 
standards.  And wherever they do, then there are usually alternative, Open 
Source programs that do the same job.


Every aspect of a program's interaction with the outside world -- 
communications protocols, save file formats and similar -- must be documented 
to the point where any competent programmer could write a program which 
interacts seamlessly with the application that originally generated them.  
That documentation may well be the Source Code for the program itself, of 
course; or it could just be something like the RFCs -- in which case, the will 
is surely out there for someone within the Open Source community to do the 
rest.

Anything less is just blatant anti-competitive behaviour.

-- 
AJS

Answers come *after* questions.