Heard of SkyPe? I only came to know of it a few months ago when they went public with the first beta for Windows, and thought to myself, "neat, but what makes this different from the other VoIP solutions?"... Well, primarily it is the fact that SkyPe works fairly well, works across multiple operating systems, and has a clean interface.

Would you like this to work on Haiku/BeOS/Zeta? I know I would, but what are we to do about it? Well, the makers of Public Mind are helping the developers of SkyPe in the form of an online poll, where you can vote and voice your thoughts on the idea of porting SkyPe to your platform of choice.

Marvelous. Go register and then vote. If you have some thoughts on the issue, feel free to write them up while you visit the site.

Voice over IP has been around for years in various forms, but it has not yet gained significant traction in the market, although it is gaining momentum. SkyPe looks to me to be a significant contender in this arena, if they continue providing their product without any usability issues and help support their users along the way. Only time will tell. I do know the idea of VoIP is not going to go away anytime soon. Telecoms, beware. :D