skype equivalent

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mimosa
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skype equivalent

Post by mimosa »

Does Salix have an equivalent for Skype, either installed or in the repositories? I looked for exiga, which was mentioned in a recent thread, and can't find it; the instructions on exiga's site point to an apparently defunct page for a version for Slackware. But I'm not wedded to any particular app for this - I just want my daughter not to think Linux is rubbish because it "doesn't have" Skype! Needless to say, the people she wants to interact with using it are all on Windows, so an app with a version easily downloadable for Windows would be great.
Shador
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Re: skype equivalent

Post by Shador »

There are linux binaries for Skype available on their homepage.
mimosa wrote:I just want my daughter not to think Linux is rubbish because it "doesn't have" Skype!
Well, actually, it's skype which is rubbish being a proprietary, unpublished communication protocol. She only is able to communicate by the rules of Skype as long and to the extent Skype allows her to. :evil:
For the same reason I don't now of any (open-source) alternative for the proprietary Skype client.

Try to make her understand how bad that is. My brother now uses Skype but at least agreed with me that if it were possible for him to use an alternative, it would be better. :mrgreen:
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mimosa
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Re: skype equivalent

Post by mimosa »

I couldn't agree more. But what about ekiga (I misspelt it above, oops), which is open source and at least has a beta version for Windows, so my daughter could get her friends to download it, thus bypassing the Skype protocol? Or any VOIP app for Salix? Is there something already installed or in the repositories that I have missed? For her particular needs, anything that works on both Salix and Windows would do. I should add that I've scarcely used this type of software myself, so I can't judge the actual usability factor. The main thing though is free or nearly free telephone calls, possibly internationally!
Shador
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Re: skype equivalent

Post by Shador »

I've not digged deep into this topic, but as ekiga works with an open protocol it should work with any client that uses the VoIP protocol. So yes, as far as I can tell ekiga can be an alternative. I don't know whether there are betters around though , what the "best" application for this purpose is and I've never used them so far. :)
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mimosa
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Re: skype equivalent

Post by mimosa »

I'd like to give it a try, or rather, get my daughter to, but as far as I can tell, it's not installed in Salix already, nor is it in the repositories; the ekiga website has a link to a Slackware version (not 13), but the link seems to be broken. The source code is there, so I suppose I could teach myself how to compile it ... but I've never done that before.

What do you think is the most straightforward way for me (curious beginner as I am) to get ekiga, or another open-source alternative, working with Salix?

More generally, I wonder if there would be sufficient demand to justify installing a VoIP app such as ekiga as standard, or putting one in the Salix repository if it isn't there already? All the teenagers I know seem to be using them all the time (well, Skype, in Windows).
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gapan
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Re: skype equivalent

Post by gapan »

You could rebuild pidgin with audio/video support. You can find instructions to do that in these forums. However, your daughter won't be able to use that, or ekiga, or any other open source application to contact their friends who use skype. They would have to use the same protocol as she does.
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