What’s the VoIP world talking about this week? So far its that Skype for Asterisk will be discontinued. The official statement by Digium reads:
“Skype for Asterisk will not be available for sale or activation after July 26, 2011. Skype for Asterisk was developed by Digium in cooperation with Skype. It includes proprietary software from Skype that allows Asterisk to join the Skype network as a native client. Skype has decided not to renew the agreement that permits us to package this proprietary software. Therefore Skype for Asterisk sales and activations will cease on July 26, 2011.”
This comes 2 weeks after Microsoft bought Skype. We can’t say that we didn’t see something like this happening. Microsoft is notorious for extolling open source and then doing everything it can to lock down customers to all things Microsoft. This makes it particularly easy to stand here and point the finger at Microsoft (as many people are doing now), but we have to remember that in all likelihood, they aren’t even calling the shots yet. Here is a great alternative perspective on the death of Skype for Asterisk by Dave Michels, President of Verge1 Consulting, in his blog, Pin Drop Soup (audio quality so good you can hear a pin drop (: ). What do you think is behind the decision? Conspiracy theories welcome.
