If it does, there is always Google Voice.

Microsoft is normally very greedy so I don't think this will benefit everybody but maybe a few. I've tried just about every popular voip out there, and skype has always been the most expensive. It hasn't been that great for mac users, and it appears that won't change.

I'm still crossing my fingers for Google Talk though. They were supposed to integrate a bunch of great features into it for some time. But I think Google will be more friendly towards Linux and Macs and in the end hold the trump card for best voip, if they choose to start the race.

I agree, Google is much more cross-platform friendly. On the other hand there are always the concerns regarding privacy. Not that I would trust Skype or Microsoft more in this area, but the news seem often to voice concerns in the context of what Google is doing. If I remember correctly Google is recording all Voice calls by default and lets you decide at the end whether or not they can use it for speech recognition software training. The privacy conscious person would ask why they don't give that option to record or not before making a call.

Besides, from my understanding, please correct me if I'm wrong, free computer to computer calls depend on having a Google account. It's not like everyone would have that. Let alone being logged in to it. For example I do not use webmail, I always use a good old email client. People wouldn't be able to reach me using Google Voice.

Basically, Google comes with its own set of limitations, which to a degree a separate piece of software / service does not have.

So, I guess we will see what Microsoft will do with Skype. A proper alternative (as in a software / service like Skype) would be nice. But it's still the same problem like using Google Voice, people would need to switch to it, in order to make it a proper replacement.