This app can't run on your PC

You must have downloaded something else. Skype is 100% free to use and requires no "unlock" to start using the "people link to access and add friends, the search box to search for a specific use to add."

Here is my experience with Skype from the Microsoft store. I downloaded it fine. None of the links work. To get to the Skype user account I had to do a login to my Microsoft account (imagine that). After setting up the account, I had several pay options but no free option to activate the links on the Skype that are needed for free access. Those included the people link to access and add friends and family, the search box to search for a specific use to add. I even had a user in America send a friend request which I am unable to click on because it is not activated. So the user of Skype on this surface Rt is essentially screwed unless they buy one off the pay prescriptions offered by Microsoft and Skype. One being access to WIFI hot spots even though I am already on a private wireless system. According to what you have said, I should already have access to Skype and be able to do all the things I always could.

Skype in the windows store cost money to use even though Skype says it is free and you can talk to families and fiends for free.

False - Skype is free.

They even want to charge you for using your own network.

False - Skype is free on all networks.

What a shame microsoft would allow that in there store.

Microsoft does allow Skype in the store. Get it here.

I would think once you purchase the surface from Microsoft it is your right to use apps from any website that will run on your tablet.

You can.  You are 100% allowed to use any app that is designed for the ARM processor chip.  Microsoft is not stopping you from using programs, it's the processor.  It's the same reason you can't run full Adobe Photoshop on your phone: it wasn't built for the phone's processor chip.

It is freeware created under the GNU license. But since it is gnu Microsoft can't make money off it.

False. There is a lot of free apps for Surface.  Microsoft contributes to open source code, you know.

There is a need for many types of free apps.

There are tens of thousands of free apps for Surface. Take your pick.

They can't afford the extra fees Microsoft charges.

There are no Microsoft charges.

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It's not a setting or artificial, it's just that the RT line uses what's called an ARM chipset, also known as RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Chip).  It literally can't read the compiled code from full programs.  Same reason you can't run Adobe Photoshop on an iPhone, the processor just can't decode the program.  But on the bright side, it can't run viruses either, so it does make the first version of Windows that can't get "gunked up" over time. It will work like an iPad and have continuous and consistent performance for its entire life. I'm sad they discontinued it so fast, I know a lot of folks that could use that benefit.

It's the same reason you can't download your grandtheft auto mod onto a phone either :)

No, it's not a software thing you can jailbreak and change.  It has a different kind of processor inside.  It has the same kind of processor an iPad or cell phone uses (called an RISC chip, which means Reduced Instruction Set Computer).  It uses this reduced set of processing so it can have long battery life like a phone or iPad.