How will this affect the success of Skype's spyware, they ask? Was it good strategy for one or the other? Did Microsoft pay too much? How does this affect the possible success of this or that other company? Questions whose perspective regards people as nothing more than terrain for these nonhumans to squabble over.

All those questions alter nothing that matters for us.

The Skype client program is nonfree software: it gives its owner power over its users. Presently it will give the same power to a different company. The identity of the master is just a detail, because freedom means not having a master.

One part of freedom, for computer users, is not using Skype.

The GNU Project is developing free software to do more or less the same job, and multiple free programs by others also already do the basics. When free software makes it possible to do full-featured VOIP while maintaining your freedom, that will be a real change.

Replacing Skype with free software is an FSF High Priority Project.