I prefer free, open software. But the fact is that if you ask 'internet phone' to random computer users everywhere then chance is that 'Skype' is their reply - or else they're not familiar with making calls over the internet at all. So, getting Skype on the N800 was good for that reason - large contacts list, and contacts in other companies on the other side of the world are also familiar with it. Besides, Skype _does_ have some other features that most alternatives don't: 1) More countries are included for landcalls. 2) Cheap calls (this is also the case for some of the alternatives, but 1) is more often than not enough that it doesn't help). And 3) Penetrates well in firewall environments.

I really would like to have an open source version instead of course. Skype had the most stupid 'missing close when disconnect' bug for half a year (in the linux version), which would have been easy to fix if it was open (instead we had to resort to pre-loading a patched C runtime lib. with hacked functionality). And now that it's been fixed, it's only in a new version with terrible user interface (the old one was good. This is the layout in the N800 version, btw.)