Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

[GreyGeek]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

Hi GG. I only use Skype occasionally to reach a couple of die-hard Windows users in the USA. Would any of the resources you have mentioned talk to their Skype boxes? Or should I be forced to use Skype in an XP box running in Virtualbox under Natty?

Skype doesn't allow non-skype connections to their servers,i.e., you can login ONLY with a Skype client, and without the client to decrypt the packets I doubt you could read them with a SIP client even if you could hack in.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

Hi GG (again!)

Tried to install blink as per instructions; got the following failure output.

Any suggestions?
.....

Don't know what to say. I used the Lucid instructions. Which one did you use.?

[GreyGeek]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

I think, Phil, that blink is a SIP-only client. It's OK if that's all you want to use.

But they have video capabilities added in the gui interface, just no codecs, yet, to select. So, I suspect that video is on the short list.

A bit better than that is Jitsi - http://www.jitsi.org/index.php/Main/HomePage
(formerly known as Sip-Communicator) or QuteCom (formerly known as Wengophone) . They work with SIP, Yahoo, MSN, GoogleTalk, Aim, ICQ, Jabber etc. ---so they can replace IMs as well.

I also installed QuteCom, but I find I am not able to connect to my ekiga.net sip account using it, AND, it does not offer a sip server of its own, like Ekiga and Blink do.

What remains a puzzle to me is that I can see and talk to GoogleTalk users online, but, can I do the same if the other person just has an XMPP/Jabber account?

GoogleChat works Ok, and so does GoogleTalk. What aggravates me is that Google video breaks every time FireFox gets updated. It appears to work no better in Chrome. Also, WHEN the green video camera icon is showing over my name in the contacts list I see that no one else has video capabilities, so whats the point?

[jpenguin]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

Hi GG (again!)

Tried to install blink as per instructions; got the following failure output.

Any suggestions?

The following packages have unmet dependencies.
blink : Depends: python-eventlet-0.8 but it is not going to be installed
Depends: python-sipsimple (>= 0.17.1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages
philip@Philip-Desktop:~$
[/color]

sipsimple depends on python < 2.7
natty has python 2.7.1


I manually checked all their repos (sid, testing, unstable...) all seem to req`uire python < 2.7



Guess we just have to wait for natty support
http://lists.ag-projects.com/piperma...ay/001347.html

[kjjjjshab]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

...

Notice that he does not mention Linux. His "non-Microsoft platforms" is in the context of "communication", i.e., smartphones. So, it appears that Skype for iOS and Android will continue, but a binary for PCs running Linux? Not a word.....

Linux is a Microsoft platform, don't you know?

[GreyGeek]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

So far I have tested QuteCom, Twinkle, Blink, Ekiga, OpenMeeting, gizmo5, and Kphone.

From a previous use of Ekiga I still had an account on the ekiga.net domin. The new, and very much improved version of Ekiga had no problems connecting to that account. Ekiga video display is not as sharp as Skype's, but it is usable. It seems faster than Skype. Ekiga now offers access to landline and cellphone for charges similar to Skype's using a service by Diamoncard.us, the same service that Blink uses.

Ekiga and Blink offer VOIP server accounts for free usage and for charged landline and cellphone calls. Blink uses sip2sip.info and Ekiga uses ekiga.net.

Diamondcardus, the service for making landline and cellphone calls, sends instructions on the settings that allow a connection for Twinkle and Ekiga to their service. Those instructions are useful for the other VIOP clients.

Blink, also GPL'd, seems to be the best for chat and voice. It's configuration has space for video codecs but none has been supplied. Apparently they are coming "soon".

Gizmo5 just didn't work right.

QuteCom was very good and included video. I just couldn't get it connected to my ekiga.net account.

[arochester]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

Brosix: A business-oriented Skype alternative with Linux client

LXer user Tracyanne, via Curt Howland's blog post, let me know about Brosix, which though still a proprietary technology does offer an alternative to Skype that's aimed at businesses and features Linux client software that isn't inferior (like that of Skype) to its Windows and Mac offerings.

The service is free for personal use and reasonable for businesses.

Video chat, voice chat, instant messaging, a virtual whiteboard, screen-sharing, screenshots, file transfer -- it's all part of the service.

Tracyanne seemed to say that Brosix was interested in getting its Linux client software into the repositories of Linux distributions. Haven't seen that yet. If anybody knows of a distro that packages Brosix, please let me know.

Now if I can only figure out how to easily record both sides of a Brosix voice chat, we're in business.

- http://ht.ly/1cCmyf

[GreyGeek]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

I checked out Brosix. It offers a free Linux client BUT:

System Requirements:

Brosix for Linux is available for Intel Linux computers (no other platforms supported) and requires Linux Kernel 2.6 or higher.

I am assuming that by "Intel Linux computers" they mean computers that use Intel video chips.

I watched the demo video and one of the many features is the ability to control another computer running Brosix remotely, in addition to sharing screens. There is also a web version that doesn't require installing any software, but you still have to create an account.

I am going to bite the bullet and give it a try. (the article you linked closed with the author wishing brosix had recording capability. That leads me to a short discussion of Blink and Ekiga:

Blink has a record button, Eikiga does not. Blink is much faster than Ekiga starting up, shutting down, and in use. Using the same audio codecs they give the same voice quality which, at 16KHz, is EXCELLENT. Ekiga can open a video window if both users have webcams. Blink's video capability is in the future, but how far only Blink developers know. Ekiga does NOT have a "share your screen" feature.

Both Blink and Ekiga have PC-to-phone capability. I signed up for phone access on both accounts. Ekiga's base charge is $15 US. Blink charges $23.80 US (3.80 VAT charge). BOTH services are by Diamond.us, but they have different proxy URLs. Both admin website, although significantly different are adequate. Blink's is laid out with tabs in the upper right corner. Ekiga's has the tradition left column descriptions. Ekiga has slightly more detail.

Phone numbers are entered into Blink via a user's GMail Contacts list, making care that after you enter a contact's name you enter + and the country code in front of their number, i.e., +1402429257 If you make changes to GMail's Contact list then the next time you fire up Blink it will reload the list. IF you have Blink running when you modify your GMail Contact list you will notice within a minute or two that Blink's Contact list has been modified.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

I checked out Brosix. It offers a free Linux client BUT:

System Requirements:

Brosix for Linux is available for Intel Linux computers (no other platforms supported) and requires Linux Kernel 2.6 or higher.

I am assuming that by "Intel Linux computers" they mean computers that use Intel video chips.

My take on that (although I may be wrong) is that they are referring to the processor eg no arm/risc etc - presumably as a result of Linux supporting so many architectures.

It's great that there are so many choices available - now everyone must decide on how best to get the same one

[GreyGeek]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

I downloaded the Linux client from here.
Ark opened it nicely and I extracted the Brosix directory to my home account. Then I edited the menu to place a entry linking to /home/jerry/Brosix/Brosix (NOT Brosix.bin). I clicked on my menu entry and was greeted with the login/create new account dialog. I created a new account. My account name is GreyGeek. If anyone else has installed it give me a call. I am on line and waiting. I am really anxious to check this thing out.

An aside: Blink and Ekiga are GPL. Brosix is proprietary. How long Linux users will have access to a free version is anyone's guess. BUT, there are SO MANY GREAT FEATURES I'm willing to try it (while still maintaining my Blink and Ekiga clients). I especially like the "Share your screen" AND the remotely access the other screen, VNC style.

OK. GreyGeek is waiting for any other willing adventurer to give him a call! 8)

EDIT: Opps! When you log into their Web Client while you have your local client running it disconnects your local client.

[dibl]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

@GG, you sucked me in -- I'll try it. However:

don@aptosidbox:~/Brosix$ pwd
/home/don/Brosix
don@aptosidbox:~/Brosix$ ls
Brosix Brosix.bin config.ini libs plugins sounds themes
don@aptosidbox:~/Brosix$ ./Brosix
<program name unknown>: error while loading shared libraries: liboil-0.3.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
don@aptosidbox:~/Brosix$ sux
Password: 
root@aptosidbox:/home/don/Brosix# apt-cache policy liboil-0*
liboil-dev:
 Installed: (none)
 Candidate: (none)
 Version table:
root@aptosidbox:/home/don/Brosix#

I'm going to go rooting through the Debian repos to see if I can find that library.

[dibl]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

Bummer. A search in all Debian packages gave me this:

You have searched for packages that names contain liboil-0.3.so.0 in suite(s) stable, all sections, and all architectures.

Sorry, your search gave no results

It appears in RPM form for Fedora, and also CentOS and SUSE. It's not in the downloaded Brosix tarball. I've got a feeling it's a "64-bit" problem.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

It is in my Lucid/main archive. It is the optimized inner loops library.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

I am looking forward to using THIS feature:
[img width=322 height=400]http://www.brosix.com/images/features/screensharing_start.png[/img]

[GreyGeek]

Re: Bye Bye Skype for Linux?

The only negative thing about Brosix is that it cannot make PC --> phone calls. A minor bummer.