Not much of a comparison...

Story: Compare Ekiga and Skype on Ubuntu 8.04Total Replies: 7
Author Content
techiem2

Jun 23, 2008
9:30 AM EDT
Mainly just setup tutorials (for Ubuntu of course) and small blurbs about what he/she/it (a name on the article would be nice) didn't like/had problems with.

tuxchick

Jun 23, 2008
12:34 PM EDT
IMO the author missed the biggest differences:

-Skype is closed-source, on a closed network, running on a closed, non-standard protocol. So you can talk only to other Skype users -Linux's Skype client is far behind the Windows client in features and polish -Ekiga is a GPL, general-purpose VoIP client that supports both audio and video. It's not locked to a single network, but can be used with any network that isn't restricted to certain clients
techiem2

Jun 23, 2008
12:58 PM EDT
Not to mention the whole security issue of skype's p2p network model. Do you really want your voip packets going through other people's machines? Do you really want other people's going through yours?
cabreh

Jun 23, 2008
10:28 PM EDT
All very good points. And in a perfect world I'd be using Ekiga instead of Skype. However, being in a business environment I have a problem using Ekiga. And that is that everyone else is using Skype. If I want free direct links then I am also forced to use Skype.

The security issues have been laid to rest long ago or my organization wouldn't be using it. The VoIP packets (and chat) are all encrypted and therefore it matters not if they go through other servers. After all your mail does that all the time even if it isn't encrypted.

Also your servers cannot be used for Skype traffic if you locate them behind a NAT firewall. Which you do of course. I hope.

NoDough

Jun 24, 2008
4:47 AM EDT
Quoting:All very good points. And in a perfect world I'd be using Ekiga instead of Skype. However, being in a business environment I have a problem using Ekiga. And that is that everyone else is using Skype. If I want free direct links then I am also forced to use Skype.


All very good points. And in a perfect world I'd be using Linux instead of Windows. However, being in a business environment I have a problem using Linux. And that is that everyone else is using Windows. If I want free direct links then I am also forced to use Windows.

cabreh

Jun 24, 2008
9:31 AM EDT
@NoDough

Sorry to hear you are stuck with Windows at work. I get along very well as the System Admin using Linux all day long. While it's true I am supporting a mainly Windows shop, that's NOT what I use.

You don't need to either unless it's mandated.
NoDough

Jun 24, 2008
10:04 AM EDT
cabreh, while I do support a Windows shop and some of our apps do require Windows, you completely missed the point of the post.
cabreh

Jun 24, 2008
10:13 AM EDT
Yes. I purposely wrote what I did because I would have preferred you to say what you mean. I stated that because the organization I work with depends on customers, and being compatible with them in so many ways, we have to use Skype rather than Ekiga. As much as I prefer Open software, the reality is that under certain circumstances you just have to use something else.

I wasn't saying that the previous posters were wrong or anything like that. Just that maybe you can't always do what you really know is best.

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