Microsoft Near Deal to Acquire Skype

@Tracyanne,

OK, Brosix looks like a good alternative for Skype. It is free for personal use, it seems to have security in mind, it is for businesses, which supposedly means feature rich and quality driven(?).

But the fact is, it is closed and Proprietary software similar to Skype, so they potentially are susceptible to being bought & sold just like Skype was and we end up with the same situation. I rather prefer to go with some FOSS tools, but these currently don't seem to be up to par with the commercial ones.

One thing I am fairly sure of is that Google is not going to be bought & sold any time soon and they won't be playing footsies with MS. So I would prefer to go with Google at this time since I already have Gmail account, It only needs a browser, which makes it multi-platform accessible by many Windows users, and is most FOSS friendly than many others. I will look into Brosix and if I find it has more and better features than Google Voice, I might consider it.

> It only needs a browser, which makes it multi-platform accessible by many Windows users, and is most FOSS friendly than many others.

Well, it's FOSS friendly if you run the right distro (Debian, Ubuntu/Mint, Red Hat, or SuSE). They don't offer a Slackware package. :(

Now, I could probably repackage their rpm without too much difficulty, but I haven't felt the need to do so.

Ah, I see the Slackbuilds folks have beat me to it, and it's already repackaged in their repository. I may install it after all, since I already have a gmail account.

@Sander if they actually worked, were properly cross platform and were easy for noobs and non technical computer users to set up, in the same way Skype and Brosix are easy to set up that would be wonderful.

But they are not.

In addition, as I've already said I have ekiga, and most of the time I can't get my ekiga account to register with the ekiga servers, and the rest of the time my Diamond card voip to landline account won't register with the Diamond card servers.

Skype works, so does Brosix.

When our FOSS developers get a clue, and build something that is more than a hobby project that any man woman and their dog can set up an use, and is reliable, then we can discuss them.

You want a landline to VOIP bridge, sounds like... Just get a linksys/cisco SPA3102...

@tracyanne, it's one thing for the software to be reliable, but quite another for the network to be reliable. One backhoe, or one hurricane, or one earthquake, or one network admin is all it takes to knock a few hundred people offline for a while. The best programming in the world can't protect against those hazards.

Here's on that is GPL, I haven't yet tried it, but it is GPL3 http://icanblink.com/index.phtml

gus, all true, I guess they keep on getting a backhoe through thier network cable or perhaps there's a permanent hurrican between here and the ekiga servers.

Skype works, so does Brosix, so for that matter does my WAN connection. So it looks like the problem is at both the ekiga servers, and the diamond card servers.

Also even when it's working ekiga is not the nice easy set up every man woman and their dog can set up.

Well Blink seems to answer the easy to set up easy to use criteria. Unfortunately it doesn't have video.

@JaseP

Quoting:You want a landline to VOIP bridge, sounds like... Just get a linksys/cisco SPA3102...

If that was for me, no I don't.

I want an easy to instal, easy to configure, easy to use voip application that does Video, that any person no matter their level of computer experience or knowledge can set up and use.

I want something that replaces Skype on all counts.

I would prefer it was GPL or some other FOSS license. But I'll take proprietary if that's all there is that meets those criteria.

I want something I can recommend to those non technical people, so they can replace Skype on their computer regardless of the operating system they choose.

jitsi http://www.jitsi.org/index.php/Main/HomePage looks promising, it's LGPL and it supports all the major Operating Systems. It seems that it also has video.

Jitsi seems to meet all the criteria, it's FOSS (LGPL) it's easy to configure, easy to use, easy to install, uses secure connections, provides audio and video communications. runs on Linux, Mac and Windows, uses SIP AIM ICQ XMPP H263 H264.

Quoting:Jitsi seems to meet all the criteria,

Good you found Jitsi (SIP Communicator). It was next on my list to check after Ekiga since it is still in beta. Would be interesting to know how it works for you if you try it soon.

http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2011-05-11-01...

One thing of concern about FOSS software that needs server resources is whether there is enough available to accommodate numerous users. That might explain the issues you were having with Ekiga

Just a note. The major difference between FOSS projects of this typem and the no cost proprietary ones is that the proprietary ones set thiers up as a business and charge for additional services, like Brosix, you get all the functionality in the free to use client but get the ability to set up your own secure networks for business use.

This is something the Jitsi people could/should look into. Even, perhaps look into making voip to landline available, as a value add chargable extra, as Skype does

BTW my ekiga account seems to register fine when I'm using Jitsi. Anyone want to PM me so we can test the audio and video.

Hmm. Sjvn mentions oovoo: http://www.oovoo.com/home.aspx

But there doesn't seem to be a Linux client for it, so it's a non-starter, even if they do offer a web based version.

I also looked at oovoo but without a Linux client it is definitely a non-starter which is a shame as it looks pretty good. It would certainly fulfill all my requirements as far as voip is concerned, so it looks like the search for that perfect Linux voip app continues.

Quoting: I want an easy to install, easy to configure, easy to use voip application that does Video, that any person no matter their level of computer experience or knowledge can set up and use.

I don't know how you feel about Google,... or whether it's available in your area (the talk plug-in), but what I'm doing is setting up Google's chat client to do voip & using their iGoogle page to make accessing it simpler...

jasp, I've already ruled Google out as it requires that you have a gmail account. There are several better options, even proprietary that provide better freedom from lock in than that.

Quoting:@Sander if they actually worked, were properly cross platform and were easy for noobs and non technical computer users to set up, in the same way Skype and Brosix are easy to set up that would be wonderful.

But they are not.

Half my country disagrees with you, sorry. But granted, the major part of SIP users here broadband modems with built-in SIP/VoIP.

But my point is, if Ekiga servers are flaky, don't use them. SIP is like e-mail. get it wherever you get the best service (or best deal). You can use Ekiga (the application) with any of a hunderd SIP service providers.

At home I use a standard telephone through a Linksys PAP2 and my ISP's servers for VoIP. At work I use sflphone (http://sflphone.org/) with my work VoIP server (an Asterisk machine IIRC).

Sander My ekiga account seems to register fine when I'm using Jitsi. Anyone want to PM me so we can test the audio and video.

I don't own any webcams (hate the damn things). I SIP audio only.