When Microsoft announced the purchase of Skype, many were worried that the company ceases to support the operating systems and platforms other than Windows. And unfortunately, it seems that is exactly what may be happening: in a statement, Digium announced that the Skype for Asterisk product is no longer available for sale or activation ...
"Here is Linus Torvalds, and if you're reading this, YOU are the resistance"
Although Microsoft representatives promise to provide and kneeling in the corn that the company would "continue to invest and support the Skype clients on platforms that are not controlled by the company" (as seen here), in practice seems to be another story. And the first victim appears to be the Skype for Asterisk, a solution that allowed to connect Asterisk to the Skype network, via a proprietary code assigned by Skype.
According to the official statement made by Digium, Skype decided not to renew the agreement allowing the use of proprietary code. Thus making it impossible to communicate between services. Thus, there is nothing left but to close new sales and renewals of the solution.
Fortunately, customers who have purchased the solution will not be watching vessels, as previously agreed, even if Skype decided to end the partnership the company would continue providing support and maintaining communication between the services of at least two years. More than enough time for companies to seek alternatives and change their infrastructure.
Asterisk is an Open Source solution for VoIP PBX, widely used in businesses looking to save on telephony for call centers and Help Desks, and various other purposes. With Skype for Asterisk, the service could connect to the Skype network as a native client, so users could connect to a network of other network users free of charge.
Has not yet been confirmed if this decision came at the behest of Microsoft, even if part of the purchase process, or it was just a strategic decision of Skype. But it's a shame that it is ending.
It costs nothing to remember, Microsoft also has a solution (the owner, of course) based communications, call Lync. Will we see a greater integration between Skype and it soon?
