Skype ... friend or fiend

I've heard the hype for a couple years, but finally I decided to jump on the Skype bandwagon. Skype is this handy little FREE program that allows users to make FREE computer to computer calls or cheap international calls from your computer to a cell phone or land line (2 cents across the whole of the US and Western Europe).
The problems this would help me with:
1. My apartment changed from T-Com to Alice. Which means the end of those dirt cheap prefixes HOWEVER free calls across the WHOLE of Europe. Not the best deal if your relatives live in the US, so Skype offers a cheaper alternative
2. Trying to call Ingrid late at night, when the rest of the house is sleeping. Now her computer will quietly ring versus the chorus of phones that would wake up the whole house.
3. Living in the quasi commune style community that I do means all the phone lines could be tied up. Skype provides me with an alternative.
4. By getting my European friends on Skype provides us a cheap and easy means of communication in the event I move to the US.
5. It gives you a 'second' phone line ... nice if you dont have call waiting for frequently get put on hold

Those were my hopes and theories. In practise, the quality is not nearly that of a landline ... more on the order of a cell phone with a moderate/flucuating signal. Passible at times, unacceptable at others ... perhaps again to the effect my community roommates/neighbors have on my internet connection. Its a fun toy for now, but time will tell if its a viable option for my friends and I.