Section 6.5. Requirements

6.5. Requirements

What equipment do you need in order to sign up for Skype? You need a computer, a connection to the Internet, and something to talk in to and hear out of. You don't even need a broadband connection, because Skype works (barely) over a dial-up connection.

Your computer needs to have at least a 400MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM, and between 10 MB and 20 MB of disk space. Realistically, you need a Pentium III of 500 MHz or more, preferably much more. You also need sound support (they say a sound card, but many systems now build the sound support into the motherboard), speakers, and a microphone. I strongly recommend you skip the speakers and microphone and get either a headset or a phone that plugs into your computer and supports Skype software.

Operating systems supported include:

• Windows 2000 and XP (Home and Pro)

• Macintosh OS X

• SuSE 9 and newer

• Mandrake 10.1 and newer

• Fedora Core 3 (Red Hat)

• Xandros, MEPIS, Ubuntu, and other Debian-based operating systems

If you're running a version of Linux that doesn't meet the requirements, you can try running the binary releases:

• Dynamic binary as a bzipped tar file

• Static binary bzipped tar file with Qt 3.2 installed (they also have a version for download with Qt 3.2 compiled in)

Skype recently made a bundling deal with Xandros to include Skype in their low-cost hardware and software systems. Xandros provides these to a variety of retail outlets, including Wal-Mart (online through www.walmart.com). The package will include vouchers for up to 120 minutes of SkypeOut.

Bottom line? You don't need to much of a computer or Internet connection to run Skype. The requirements for SIP-based systems are comparable. Notice you don't even need a credit card or billing address for Skype-to-Skype calls.