http://news.com.com/Intels+mantra+Lets+mak..._3-6038282.html

When you run Skype on your home computer, skype checks to see what Processor you are using.
If you are using an Intel Pentium, you are allowed to make full use of skype, having a conferance of 10 people.

However, if you are using AMD, skype limits you to 5 !!!

Its a deal struck between Intel and Skype.

HOW is this even legal ???

Microsoft has ben sued millions for bundling software ( Media Player )

Can you imagine what would hapen if the bus company limited the distance you were allowed to ride based on race.

I cant see somthing like skype limits influincing amny peoples decision on what CPU to buy.. and probably wont have much of an impact on the market.

But this just shows how low some companys are willing to sink.

Also, Skype have a linux version.. i would be interested to see how they are planning on accuratly detecting the cpu manufacutre on a linux box, especially when the kernel could be tweaked quite easily to lie about such things.

Wow thats new to me and since the microsoft escapades and lawsuites since then things seem to be easing off in the way of what companies allow as "offers" i suppose, they could easily market it as a bonus feature just like those infomercials you get on television "buy this and this (skype) and this (intel) and get not one not two but five more friends added to your conference" On the point about the distance you can travel depending on race i know you think its kind of lame and may never happen but how about taking a sarcastic view on things such as why do the elderly pay less to ride a buss than i do, so i guess there are many ways to view this and in the end your title sums it up nicely with 1 word - competative - and companies are throwing all stops out the window today to market their product because in some cases e.g. microsoft the profit they make from the short period that they use the marketing strategy is enough to cover any or all of the lawsuits against them.

Easy it is called a joint marketing venture or co-branding agreement. Basically Skype and Intel signs a contract that basicallys says that "Intel will mention and/or promote skype in its ads in exchange Skype gives an extra 5 users for those using computers with Intel chips." That kind of stuff goes on all the time across industries.

Think SBC/ATT & Dish Network teaming up to offer combined services to compete with cable. We've been a Dish network customer for 5 years. Well our telephone company now offers a package that is unlimited local/long distance, DSL, and DISH for a package deal. Well we went to them and actually "cancelled" our dish network account to resubscribe through SBC. We got a new HD receiver to replace our "legacy" Model 6000 reciever, get our local channels now as part of the basic 180 package and get the HD channels for $5 less than we were paying before.

Another area are bundled programs. By a XYZ video capture device and get a free copy of Premiere Elements or Ulead or Avid/Pinnancle....

Or graphics card makers and game studios: get an ATI card and get this cool game for it free! Or This game best run on Nvidia cards.

I have two computers in my house, and one is an AMD processor, the other an Intel.

I've tried skype and I know what you mean. I'm confused by how they managed to work it out that you can only have 5 for AMD. Not that I would have five anyway.

Activision often releases games that work best on NVidia and fall apart on Voodoo cards. I think it is hilarious that such a thing can be allowed.

AMD - Seems fast and loads programs nicely without hesitation. Keeps up with heavy loads and is generally helpful.

Intel - I swear my Intel must be alive. Although it is a 333MHz processor, you would think it was 3.33GHz. The way that thing runs is weird. Some days, I can have Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and Fireworks all running with heavy layered graphics as well as several other processes in the back-ground and it runs like a beauty. But then on a evening, it gives in and runs like a donkey, freezing every 2.5 seconds.

This is probably easy to explain. The program designer has a Nvidia adapter, and writes his program nicely for Nvidia. Then the starts doing the job for adding the Voodoo adapter, and stops because lack of time. I think that latter issue is not a honestness issue, it's a lazyness issue.

I don't really see anything wrong about this, and its a hugely differnt matter then your bus/race example. You don't have any control over your race, you do have control over which processor you buy. There are tonnes of examples of companies being biased towards customers buying their own, or their partners, products/services. That'd be like saying a company that only sells a pc or mac port are doing something horrible to the opposite group, or to linux users, by not porting it immediately to all available platforms. Their software, their choice how they use it.
Hell, they could lock it down so it only runs at ALL on intel chipsets, I don't see why not. Their choice if they want to limit or damage their customer base based on agreements with one company or another. Whether you like it or not, I can't see how you could find it THAT horrible of a maneuver, it's an interesting take on company partnership really.

So what it's saying is that AMD is better than Intel? Because I'm looking for a new desktop to buy and I don't know which processor to pick. I was first going to decide on buying an Intel P4 processor but after seeing this thread it makes me want to buy AMD instead. Can you tell me which processor is better and faster. My friends trust P4 more than AMD but they don't really know a lot about computers like me.

There are several other topics on this subject, have a look at the hardware section of the forum. In my own opinion, you should first decide what you want to do (gaming, working, surfing ?). And then look at the best performance/price ratio on the shop nearest to your home.

So ... intel struck up a deal with Skype huh? I wonder why they chose a VOIP company and that too one which is not really a life or death issue. I mean, why didn't they just go with Microsoft or Yahoo messenger? Hehe ... that'll be fun, "Microsoft Windows works only on Intel chips" .

As far as Activision patronising AMD is concerned, maybe they found that AMD is more efficient or gives better performance with their games than Intel. It's not like they've entered a pact with AMD that they'll recommend AMD for their games in exchance for a fee.

This post has been edited by abhiram: Feb 14 2006, 03:59 PM

Yea game companies don't (yet) make games INTENTIONALLY run worse on one process, they simple optimize their code for one platform or the other as its the only way to make the best code. They decide on the hardware that will be best for what they want to do, and optimize for it. Games haven't started picking sides to diss the other quite yet... That'll annoy the hell out of me if they do (although it still wouldn't be something that would be outside their rights to do...)