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Microsoft Using Linux To Optimize Skype Traffic 396

An anonymous reader writes "A security researcher believes that Microsoft has overhauled Skype, with thousands of Linux boxes serving as the 'supernodes' that route calls between users of the voice-over-IP service. Kostya Kortchinsky of Immunity Security 'discovered the Linux supernodes using a Skype probing technique he and colleague Fabrice Desclaux first demonstrated in 2006,' according to Ars Technica. The drastic infrastructure change doesn't affect the peer-to-peer nature of the calls between Skype users."
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Microsoft Using Linux To Optimize Skype Traffic

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  • by CriticalAnalysis ( 2631225 ) on Thursday May 03, 2012 @07:51PM (#39884693)
    Skype creators are same that designed Kazaa. This is how the P2P structure of Skype works and is widely known. What is the point of this story?
  • Re:MS and Linux (Score:4, Informative)

    by CriticalAnalysis ( 2631225 ) on Thursday May 03, 2012 @08:06PM (#39884877)
    What are you talking about? Microsoft has contributed tons of patches and other stuff to, for example, Linux. They have actively worked to make it more compatible with Windows.

    Hell, they have an open source project hosting at CodePlex [codeplex.com].

    At least try to get your facts straight instead of the pure hate. But I saw what happened when Microsoft guys reached out and asked for comments about their open source offering on Slashdot. You can still read it too, Microsoft Wants Your Feedback On Its New Python IDE [slashdot.org].
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03, 2012 @08:07PM (#39884891)

    Define cheap? Did Microsoft save money by not buying Windows licenses from themselves? Price was not obviously the reason for this decision.

    Idiot.

  • by Missing.Matter ( 1845576 ) on Thursday May 03, 2012 @08:12PM (#39884951)
    Words uttered in 2001. Words which more than anything exhibit Ballmer's (mis)understanding of how GPL and other open source licenses work, and also how cancer in general works.
    Like the AC said, even in 2012 MS is still the bogeyman.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03, 2012 @08:32PM (#39885201)

    Ballmer made the comment and he is the current CEO of Microsoft. He never recanted what he said and MS has been on a continuous campaign of attacking Linux ever since. Furthermore, "Overly Critical Guy" made the bogeyman comment, not an AC. Hmm...

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday May 03, 2012 @08:38PM (#39885247)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Thursday May 03, 2012 @08:39PM (#39885265) Journal

    Apparently, you either failed to read or failed to comprehend the article. In this case, Microsoft has deployed 10,000 Linux servers essentially to replace a larger number of Windows machines (the supernodes that ran on individual desktops). This is a new deployment of a new type of server (a dedicated supernode).

    So this is not case of Microsoft just delaying a switchover from Linux to Windows, it represents Microsoft choosing to use Linux for a new task.

  • by Diamonddavej ( 851495 ) on Thursday May 03, 2012 @08:47PM (#39885323)

    And it's therefore ironic that the development of Skype on Linux has been abandoned, it's been stuck at version 2.2 Beta for over a year now.

  • by icebike ( 68054 ) * on Thursday May 03, 2012 @09:15PM (#39885549)

    Correct.

    In the early days of Skype, any machine with a direct connection to the internet could find itself being a supernode (which really handled setting up connections for firewalled machines, not all of the traffic for those machines).

    Later Skype decided to create farms of supernodes for this and stop using end-user machines for this purpose. (Mostly because it was getting harder and harder to find non-firewalled machines). They haven't used individual desktops for supernodes for a long time.

    So other than the scale of the deployment, the fact that Microsoft deliberately chose to avoid windows for this purpose is significant.

  • by omglolbah ( 731566 ) on Thursday May 03, 2012 @10:42PM (#39886121)

    Personally I find Win7 to be good enough that I am ok with shelling out the 165 USD it cost here in Norway.

    Each to their own and all that though. I use ubuntu on my file/media/web server and find that to be the best solution for me there.

  • by SplashMyBandit ( 1543257 ) on Thursday May 03, 2012 @11:26PM (#39886339)

    Microsoft Flight is a total joke for the sim crowd. Only someone quite inexperienced when it comes to simulators would think Flight was anything other than lame (eg. any of X-Plane, or DCS:A-10C, or DCS:Ka-50, or the recently released DCS:World, or even Microsoft Flight Sim X are all generally held to be better simulators than Flight - by those in the know).

    Visual Studio is the best IDE, if you only develop for Windows (most people do more than Windows, eg the web, iOS etc) if you have never used anything better (and there are better IDEs out there, depending on your needs). Again, this smacks of someone who actually hasn't got much experience with other IDEs.

    nb. Nokia is no longer the World's largest phone manufacturer. Recently Samsung overtook them in shipped more units, and furthermore, Apple is the leader in terms of market direction (they lead, others follow). Microsoft is loosing money badly in the mobile space - if it wasn't for their established monopolies they would have exited mobile long ago, but they are desparate to be relevant. Now Microsoft are a generation behind, trying to get into mobiles when Apple has already captured the mindshare of that market and is now moving to the tablet space (where Microsoft is a non-contender at the moment).

    XBox360 is winner? they do have higher total sales than PS3, but given their huge lead time it turns out that PS3 has had the better rate of growth in terms of sales (and a better experience, in terms of reliability and game choice).

    So, it is good that Microsoft makes you happy. It doesn't make its shareholders happy, and it is rapidly losing relevance compared with its position even five years ago. But by all means, please try and see the good in their products (even though anyone else who has used their competitors products will never go back to the poor-quality Microsoft equivalents).

  • by PaladinAlpha ( 645879 ) on Thursday May 03, 2012 @11:48PM (#39886451)

    having the worlds largest mobile phone manufacturer Nokia by the balls?

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, Microsoft + Nokia, taking the world by storm! Windows Phones everywhere! HAHAHAHAHA! They're gonna expand that 0.41 percent [thenextweb.com] market share into something important real soon now!

    Anyway, that's all I -- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

  • by ozmanjusri ( 601766 ) <aussie_bob@hotmai l . c om> on Friday May 04, 2012 @02:53AM (#39887287) Journal

    Words uttered in 2001. Words which more than anything exhibit Ballmer's (mis)understanding of how GPL and other open source licenses work

    Words uttered in 2007:

    Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users.

    http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/ [cnn.com]

    Words uttered in 2009:

    Microsoft has brought a lawsuit against car navigation system manufacturer TomTom. The products in question incorporate Linux, and at least one of the seven patents involved concerns a Linux kernel implementation rather than TomTom's own software. Is this Microsoft's first direct salvo against Linux?
    Is this a serious suit, or an effort to stir up fear, uncertainty, and doubt about Linux at a critical time, when government and industry is taking up Open Source in a big way?

    http://www.datamation.com/osrc/article.php/3807801/Bruce-Perens-Analyzing-Microsofts-Linux-Lawsuit.htm [datamation.com]

    Microsoft are just getting media sly. They haven't really changed otherwise.

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