On Thu, 2005-03-02 at 10:40 -0700, Jarrod Major wrote: > Hey Gang, > > The February edition of Linux Magazine has a very good article on Skype, the > Open Source alternative to VoIP (oversimplification). What Skype appears to > be is software that enables you to talk to peers over the internet, > eliminating the need for Long Distance. The article details installation and > setup. It recommends hardware. I noticed that Evan Brown asked about USB > headsets (with a mic) that are supported by Skype in a previous email. The > question is not worded well, it is not Skype that determines the hardware it > appears to be more of a Kernel issue at least according to the article.
First of all, just to make things clear, skype is not open source. It is developed by the people who made kazaa, and it is free to use, but not free software. The nice thing is that it does have a fairly large user base, and it is available for Linux, Windows, and MacOS. > At any rate, Peter Carless was extolling Skype's virtues to me at the last > InstallFest. I was wondering if anyone including Peter would like to discuss > this further. I tried it a little while back on a couple different machines, with a couple different distros. I always had some sort of sound issue, and was never able to get it working properly. I do however plan on giving it another try sometime soon. > It's like instant messaging in that you are on a network of users. It > requires a decent broadband connection and the appropriate hardware (I think > the article lists Creative Labs or Plantronics for USB headsets, it also > says you can get away with a mic plugged into your computer but explains > that this may result in inferior quality sound coming from your end). There > is also mention of a nominal subscription service with Skype (SkypeOut). Can > anyone elaborate on this? iirc SkypeOut lets you make PC to Phone calls. Last I checked, it was not available with the Linux version. I would also check out GnomeMeeting as it supports voice/video as well as PC to phone and it connects to MS NetMeeting, plus it is open source. Jesse _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
