Skype Open Source: questions and answers, perhaps

Désolé, lecteurs français, mais j'ai pas le temps de traduire ce coup-ci.
Last saturday, I published an article about Skype going open source. I didn't found any information on the web about that, so I blogged and twitted about.

Then, I've been retweeted, some comments were added by a Skype official (I didn't know before I saw his nick on the Skype blog), ycombinated and slashdoted. And then Skype answered on his linux blog. Here are some questions and some answers.

Did this information was ready for public release?

Certainly not.
I googled "skype opensource" before blogging, and all I get was forum entry asking for opensource substitute for skype (think of it, Mr Skype). Moreover, the Skype answered that they "can't tell you much more about that right now".

Will the protocole be open?

No.
Berkus commented on my blog and on the Skype Linux blog that they will open the GUI code, and not the library. The most likely outcome is that they will provide a libskype closed binary library that will allow someone to communicate with a GUI.

Will [my favorite jabber client] be able to support Skype also?

Probably, yes.
If they provide a libskype, other client will be able to use the Skype network the same way as the official open source GUI. For example, this will certainly help the Kopete Skype project which is "no longer being developed because of incompatibility issues with Skype".

Why do they don't open the whole thing?

Because they can't.
It appears that they don't own some source code property of their core technology.

So, what's the strategy?

Probably, Skype as a service.
This is coherent with a recent interview on techcrunch. Skype will become a closed source library that will interface with applications. This will permit to sell Skype-out fees from any applications, including open source ones.

However, in the blog, Berkus speak about a "larger offering". So, we might expect more that only a libskype and an open source UI for Linux. I hope they won't forget to include a 64 bits version of the library.

Did you manage to install Skype on your shiny Mandriva 2010?

Thanks for asking.
I took the static tarball and all went fine on my Mandriva 2009 Spring.

Today is the official public release of Mandriva 2010 and you are kindly invited to download it on the Mandriva website (in several hours...).