I think I might have found something...

I am ssh'd into my N800/OS08 and was manually doing apt-get update (faster, IMHO) and noticed some libraries being held back:

libsofia-sip-ua-glib3
libsofia-sip-ua

Hmmm. Now, up until now, I had been one of the ones unable to install Skype. Anyway, I typed 'apt-get install libsofia-sip-ua-glib3 libsofia-sip-ua' and a warning appeard that the file 'osso-software-version' would be removed. I aborted the install, then ran a 'dpkg -l|grep osso-software-version. Here is the description:

Nokia-N800-44-4:~# dpkg -l|grep osso-software-version
ii osso-software-version 1.2007.44-4 Placeholder to support lock-down

Hmmm. So, I reran the install, allowed osso-software-version to be removed. Then, on a whim, I did an apt-get install of skype, and it worked!

Nokia-N800-44-4:~# apt-get install skype
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
skype
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 2004kB of archives.
After unpacking 2638kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://catalogue.tableteer.nokia.com chinook/user skype 1.7.62.48.2 [2004kB]
Fetched 2004kB in 9s (203kB/s)
(Reading database ... 18586 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking skype (from .../skype_1.7.62.48.2_armel.deb) ...

I dunno if that is the new version number. This may be a false alarm. But it might be the trick.

Anyone with more knowledge about this feel free to correct me.

UPDATE: Crud. I'll correct myself. Running the Application Manager shows Skype still there, and it STILL won't install. (I didn't use it, anyway, but wanted to "crack the nut".