Re: Skype, Virgin America Airlines, Yahoo Go Open Source
I do believe they are only open sourcing the client and not the backend transport library. Skype's interface is Qt, nothing difficult about opensourcing that.
If anything this will let others create fully functioning clients for Skype which I don't think is possible right now. I also don't see the benefit to opening up the transport code (besides an audit) since it has to be the same on ALL ends to work like it does. I'm not into the whole 'if you can see the code it must be better' bull, Intel has been great at proving this isn't the case in the video department even if there are a lot of 'good enough' people putting out the praise. heh (i don't buy ATI video either for linux)
The yahoo news is probably the most impressive since it's a sign of them freeing some of that greatness they've always had internally before they eventually get swallowed up by the evil ones. Makes me feel better about my latest paid year of some yahoo services. -- Say no to JAMS!
I'm not into the whole 'if you can see the code it must be better' bull, Intel has been great at proving this isn't the case in the video department even if there are a lot of 'good enough' people putting out the praise. heh (i don't buy ATI video either for linux)
Normally I would agree -- just because the code is open doesn't necessarily make it of higher quality than something proprietary. However, in the case of encryption it is absolutely vital that the code be open for many obvious reasons.