Just after their $99 Signature service has been announced, Microsoft has provided OEMs with a version of Skype to be pre-installed on Windows 7 PCs. I wonder if they will take it off again if you pay them?
Just… give me a minute…
So Microsoft hates bloatware unless it is theirs. OEM partners have been paid by software vendors to provide demos of products integrated and pre-installed for the end-user. Commonly you will see a few game demos, the Kindle software, an antivirus trial, and Skype. Earlier in the month Microsoft created a service at their retail outlets to scrub computers clean of the bloat for $99.
And now that they own Skype they desire for OEMs to integrate it with Windows 7…
Here’s my dotted line for your Signature.
More humorous is that they will integrate Skype 5.8 rather than the newer Skype 5.9. Granted, it is unsurprising that a company would be slightly behind in versions particularly since the latest dot-release is less than two months old. Skype has been known to be slightly less desirable as you increase in version number and as such makes me crack a smirk either way. The latest release in particular has allegedly been the cause of minor glitches in recent podcasts with TWiT studios recommending rolling back to 5.8.
If anything this makes me slightly curious about Windows 8.
I prefer to use Google Voice
I prefer to use Google Voice and their IM/jabber voice/video client. It’s free in North America, extremely cheap internationally, I don’t have to install any bloated garbage with a poor interface that keeps spamming me, and it just requires a small browser extension to run. Having used commercial VOIP solutions, Skype, and other services over the last dozen years – Google Voice has proved to be surprisingly robust (I use it for 90% of my personal calls/communication and about 95% of my business calls/communication).
Is this really a surprice?
Is this really a surprice? The Signature PCs delivers Windows the way Microsoft wants it to be delivered, they already install Windows Live Essentials, Zune, Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Acrobat Reader on them.
skype is bloated garbage that
skype is bloated garbage that spams you?
IDK what you are doing with yours but mine sites quietly never bothering me a bit.
poor interface? you haven’t figured out how to adjust the interface?