Skype has lately made clear that it will be supplied under an open source license. It started with a member’s request to Skype that they preferred a Mandriva Linux version of the program, which didn’t exist . Skype quickly saw that this user was not a minority in his desire, and that many users were unhappy with a lack of this edition. Skype eventually declared that they entered the open source family, which would permit Linux developers to impact the road map of Skype to meet the desires of different users.
But make no mistake that this distribution is catered to the Linux release alone, so Skype is not totally open source, but this is a a step in the right direction in entering the open source niche. It also makes Skype the most popular communication software for Linux users obtainable on the market.
Inconveniently there is no launch date as yet and the details of the application are a bit unclear. Linux has confirmed that it is in development however, so let us trust they make good on their word. One also hopes this is merely a beginning and that development and distribution of an open source Skype will start to get to other platforms apart from the world of Linux as well.
Although this announcement at Skype is appreciated by the open source customization community, Skype still have a very long way to go until they are anywhere near the likes of WordPress who are well known for the amount of WordPress customization you can do with their platform.
Although overall reception is positive, there are developers who say that Skype’s open source development is not really open source free software in the genuine context. Primarily because it isn’t yet clear if only UI code will be open, while network code would remain locked up, thus making it appear as though Skype is hoping to seek help from the community gratis without giving anything back. We will just have to wait and see what in the end comes of this. All in all, Skype seems to be progressing in the right direction, and we’ll have to see what the final service entails.