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Cross-Platform Video Chat For Linux?
Posted by
timothy
on Thu Sep 11, 2008 06:28 PM
from the would-be-nice dept.
from the would-be-nice dept.
Ethan1701 writes "Some of my friends are using iChat to stay in touch and gap the distance of the Atlantic. I'm feeling left out on my Fedora Gnome based desktop. Is there a good program for Gnome that provides cross-platform instant messaging and video chat? This rules out Skype and aMSN, as well as any other app that's specific for the ICQ/AOL Network. Kopete is for KDE. Pidgin doesn't intend to develop video-chat, I haven't found a plugin for it that provides video, and Gaim-vv hasn't been developed in over two years and is so out of date that it's still going by Gaim and not Pidgin. Do Slashdot readers have an application that meets these needs? Maybe even one that surpasses iChat?"
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Submission: cross-platform video chat for Linux? by Anonymous Coward
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Ekiga (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.ekiga.org/ [ekiga.org]
Ekiga seems to do what you want, it has pretty good support for various kinds of webcams in Linux.
Re:Ekiga (Score:5, Informative)
I've had good luck with Ekiga on Linux, but my friends that use windows have stability problems with it.
It will stop sending audio, and after one call can not make anymore without the system being restarted( this is on Vista though so who knows the cause ).
Parent
Re:Ekiga (Score:5, Informative)
I'll second this. While I've found Ekiga in Linux to be reliable, friends who have used the Windows version (in WinXP) have suddenly found themselves transmitting high-pitched loud squeaks.
Parent
Re:Ekiga (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Ekiga (Score:5, Informative)
I've had good luck with Ekiga on Linux, but my friends that use windows have stability problems with it.
The thing is that Ekiga is an SIP client, so there is no need for the other party to be using the same program (yay for standards-based interop!).
Ekiga works well for me under Linux, and there is a vast choice of (free as in beer) SIP clients for Windows.
It is worth to note that ekiga.net can provide SIP account (and STUN server) for free.
No reason not to go for it, then (;
Parent
Re:Ekiga (Score:4, Informative)
I think I may be missing the point of this question - how does this rule out Skype?
I use it with my Logitech webcam on Linux and it seems to do just fine... I can even talk to people on Macs. And Windows when their machines are working/not full of viruses and spyware and such.
Perhaps I'm blind or misreading something, but I don't see SIP client specified anywhere in the original question.
Parent
Re:Ekiga (Score:5, Informative)
Gnome seems to be adopting Empathy ( http://live.gnome.org/Empathy [gnome.org] ) as their default messaging application (they used to use Gossip). Empathy includes voice and video support (although I've never got it to work myself), so it seems unclear at the moment if Ekiga will remain part of Gnome.
As a side note, I've never got Ekiga to work either, but this is something to do with NAT traversal which doesn't seem to work even after forwarding the ports given in the documentation.
Parent
Re:Ekiga (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Ekiga (Score:5, Insightful)
Some of these (Ekiga at least), use open protocols that allow interoperation with people using different clients on other platforms, some are cross-platform themselves (Ekiga, Skype), some use propreitray protocols to allow inter-operation (aMSN, GYachi).
If you ask a question, state what the actual problem is!
Parent
Patience (Score:5, Informative)
Pidgin doesn't intend to develop video-chat
http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/GSoC2008/VoiceAndVideo [pidgin.im]
"Making good progress: it works"
So its coming along.
Re:Patience (Score:5, Informative)
4 years ago, it mostly worked. Gaim said merge the fork back in, and we'll finish it. Except I watched SVN and the whole branch was dusty and ignored for years, despite being the most requested feature. One could argue that the fork accomplished what Gaim couldn't, and merging the fork back in killed it.
It is a GSOC student who is putting the feature in now, not the core Gaim/Pidgin devs, which says something. Years later, a student did it part time over the summer, where as a large team couldn't begin to touch it for years.
Parent
Re:Patience (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, personally, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot barge pole. Getting text to work with these stupid undocumented protocols is hard enough. I imagine getting video to work is pulling your hair out work.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
True, but one could contend the protocol market is easier now than it was 4 years ago. Goolge uses Jabber, and so does AOL, which used to frequently change their protocol to screw with third party clients. I know Pidgin supports tons of protocols but AOL/Google/Microsoft/Yahoo are the big ones. Two of those are much easier to support now.
Re:any idea how many times ive seen that phrase? (Score:4, Insightful)
how about if you bring your car to my mechanic shop. you say 'can i convert it to hybrid'. i say, 'well, no, but there are guys up in washington state who sell conversion kits'. 'is there a kit for my car'. 'well, no but, if we take a transmission just like yours and send it to them, they can fabricate a coupler.' "ok what about the battery box". 'well, thats in progress'.
Are you doing all this for me for free? If so, I should say "thank you" and not fucking complain.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Give the kid a break. He used a car analogy and everything. He's been doing his homework.
Re:Wrong attitude. (Score:5, Insightful)
Your example is flawed. If someone says:
"there is a nail sticking out of the floor"
that's fine. But when someone says:
"it is completely unacceptable of you to have left this nail sticking out of the floor"
then the only acceptable response from the builder who provided the house for free is:
"go fuck yourself whiner"
In fact, a builder who had provided a house for free and just got complaints for his efforts would just stop building houses for free and that's what happens with many open source developers too. Which is why the rest of us, who are quite thankful for the selfless efforts of others, are standing there telling the whiner to shut the fuck up.
Parent
Re:Wrong attitude. (Score:5, Insightful)
OK, here's my counter-counter-analogy.
A friend of yours gives you a toy that he made himself, for you to give to your kid. Unfortunately, the toy consists partially of broken glass, rusty nails, and a rabid badger. You smile, nod, and say "thank you," and as soon as your friend isn't looking, toss the toy into the rubbish bin.
A week later, you're talking to some friends and say, "you know, I really need to get a toy for my kid. He's bored of his old one, and he needs something for his next stage in cognitive development." The friend of yours who gave you the glass and nails and badger... thing... happens to be walking by, overhears you, and says, "well, what was wrong with the wonderful toy I gave him last week? I put a lot of time and energy into it!" You say, "I really don't want a lacerated, tetanus-infected rabid kid, but thanks anyway." Your friend says, "you damn ingrate! Go f*** yourself!" and walks away in a huff.
Um, that's what this is like.
Parent
Wrong attitude ... about engineering (Score:5, Interesting)
QuantumG, some of the things you say are reasonable, but sometimes you just lose the thread entirely and enter pure la la land. This is one such case.
Bad programming or bad design are sometimes excusable, for example when the developer has inadequate technical background or experience, but they are never defensible under any circumstances, regardless of whether the software is being produced for a multi-million dollar product or for a small non-commercial community project.
Excusing poor practice is reasonable because it can be remedied through dedication and experience, and both the project and the developer benefit in the process, as do the end users.
But defending poor practice is never reasonable, because it doesn't help the developer to learn to do better, it results in friction within its own community (since other developers and the more clued up users know that things could be better), and it obviously doesn't help end users at all.
What's more, your "if you want it done differently, then do it" advice is at best a recipe for forking, which is never a good idea unless the current project leadership is completely beyond the pale, and at worst it's nothing more than a brush-off. It achieves nothing at all, beyond giving the bad developer a get-home-free card.
Making your personal project into a FOSS one doesn't come burdened with many responsibilities, but it does carry one: to act reasonably on behalf of your users, and that includes acting upon their suggestions --- yes, even some of the whiny ones because where there is smoke there is also usually fire. Putting yourself beyond criticism and beyond appeal for change is not a responsible attitude, and defending the unresponsive developer and/or his bad practice is itself the height of irresponsibility to the users of a project.
Whether the software is offered for free or not is completely immaterial to the above. Poor software is poor software, regardless of cost, and is indefensible.
Since you've defended your position on "the right of crap developers to be crap because they're not paid" over several iterations, I don't expect you to see the light now. But I'm afraid you're dead wrong, and just showing yourself to lack good judgement.
Parent
Real men chat in ascii (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Real men chat in ascii (Score:5, Funny)
works ok if you look your best in ascii encoded video I guess ;)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It's more plausible than you may think. If any of the current video chat frameworks use SDL for their output, you can use SDL's AALib output driver. It will automagically mogrify your video into text, live!
Here's the FAQ entry on it: http://www.libsdl.org/faq.php?action=listentries&category=3#30 [libsdl.org]
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Skype (Score:5, Informative)
It's cross platform and video chat definitely works, I don't see the submitters problem with it.
Re:Skype (Score:5, Informative)
Skype 1 doesn't do Video on Linux, but I'm pretty sure it works with Skype 2 and above on Linux.
Also Kopete is cross-platform these days with binaries on Solaris, BSD, Mac, Windows and Linux.
Parent
Re:Skype (Score:5, Informative)
but I'm pretty sure it works with Skype 2 and above on Linux
Yeah, I think the submitter could have skipped Ask Slashdot if he had RTFW. I use Skype to video chat with a Mac, an n810, and my daughter's eeePC (pink, of course).
If you want to dismiss Skype on the grounds that they're rabidly anti-GPL, fine, but that wasn't a requirement.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah but does it work with a black eeepc?
Re:Skype (Score:5, Insightful)
Skype works fine in Linux, with Video.
I use it all the time (with video) on my Acer Aspire One (similar to the Asus EEE) with Linpus Linux (which is a Fedora deriverative running XFCE).
I have also used it in Ubuntu and Kubuntu with video, without problems.
I'm still not sure the OP's gripe with Skype.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Actually Nokia is currently working on a QT port of Firefox. And you can use Kopete in GNOME as you mentioned.
Re:Skype (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:Skype (Score:5, Insightful)
It's also compatible with nothing else, all code are unknown and it's proprietary like shit. Also you will have no idea what happens on the network and your communications is sent over P2P.
Greeeeat!!! / Tony.
Parent
It's not GNOME (Score:3, Informative)
That was the submitters problem with it, along with kopete, which also works well. Stupid I know.
Re:Skype (Score:4, Insightful)
Please be kind enough and show us something that has an open protocol, works as p2p, not proprietary, has 12 million people online and is not being blocked/traffic shaped by your ISP ?
Just maybe, i mean really, just maybe, there is a reason why skype doesn't want everyone on their cake party ?
You also have the option to check out msn's protocol which horribly abused by bots to spread scam and malware, or take a peek at most open source chat clients who's userbase is comparable with the number of students in some major college.
I just see why skype does things the way it does, i'm not saying that it's 100% right, but it is one of the best options out there today.
Parent
Skype video chat works on linux... (Score:4, Informative)
with at least some cameras. I got some $25 walmart webcam and it works on Skype with my cheapo linux laptop. If the submitter is really hankering for 'open source' and 'practical' and 'easy to use', then he/she is SOL - there's no good options that satisfy all those requirements.
Empathy (Score:5, Informative)
Empathy has video chat using jingle, it is compatible with Google Talk on windows (if you use Jabber). And it uses Telepathy, so it supports many many protocols. That said, Voice/Video are currently only supported for Jabber and SIP, there is ongoing work to make it work with MSN too.
The Pidgin-vv work is actually very much alive and you should see a release soon.
Empathy (Score:4, Informative)
Skype (Score:5, Informative)
I don't understand.
I'm in Skype right now on my Fedora/KFCE laptop, talking with a friend in the Ukraine who is using Kubuntu and I just got off a conference with a few people in our office in California who use MacOSX and Windows Vista.
What am I missing about Skype that makes it unusable?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The AIM part. The guy is interested mostly in IM video chat, not Skype or Ekiga SIP.
Re:Skype (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Skype (Score:4, Insightful)
Many people in China really like the controls on internet access that exist here.
And others don't like the control of the net in China. Thousands there were protesting. Heck a reporter, working for CNN I think, was detained when he was reporting on some protesters. Others find ways around the filters. Just because some have no problem with the Great Firewall of China [google.com] doesn't mean others don't have a problem with it.
She was very skeptical of the unrestricted access that exists in the west with concerns that it would be easy to be lied to if you have no way if knowing who you are talking to.
I'd ask if her if she thought lies couldn't be told with government control. The government could lie all it wants if it controls all media. A free press supposed to be one of the checks on government.
Falcon
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=961481&cid=24971661 [slashdot.org]
It's not compatible with anything else or uses some standard for anything, it has an encrypted binary of which the code is unknown, it uses encrypted network connections so you don't know what's going on there either, it sends your data around using P2P.
Imho it's the worst kind of IM client there is, except it works.
Mercury Messenger (Java-based client for MSNMSGR) (Score:5, Informative)
Skype and KDE applications run fine under Gnome (Score:3, Informative)
Despite the fact you said "this rules out Skype", and asserted the KDE applications won't work for you, in fact, both Skype and KDE applications will run fine under Gnome.
I personally use Gkype under Gnome with zero problems, although I've only played with the video-conferencing features and not used them in earnest.
Feeling left out (Score:5, Insightful)
Congratulations, you've just comprehended the whole of Apple's advertising strategy.
Kopete is for KDE. (Score:5, Insightful)
So what? It will work fine (though I don't know that it will do waht you want). It just won't match the rest of your desktop. With few exceptions KDE applications work fine on a Gnome "desktop" and vice-versa.
Open Wengo has always worked for me... (Score:3, Informative)
You can Get a Mac. (Score:3, Insightful)
There is always an option of Getting a Mac. Sometimes sticking to your guns on some moral high ground has a cost as well. But depending on the technical level of your friends having them run an App so you can join in too may not work. As they may not use it. THey may be using iChat for AIM talking then they need to switch to a different app Which may not be as nice as iChat to talk to you. Will probably just become you doing a text chat while the others are using iChat for video. The more people you convince to use a different app the harder it gets.
How to run Kopete in Gnome (Score:5, Funny)
Step 1: Run Kopete.
Glad I could help. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Meebo (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, that's an interesting point. Not that you actually need to be running Ubuntu, but if you're running any Linux desktop you should be able to do anything that's reported to be doable in Ubuntu. It might just take a little more elbow-grease.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
While non-KDE Qt programs themselves load just as fast as their GTK+ counterparts, KDE libraries tend to take about 7-10 seconds to load in GNOME. To make matters worse, most of the time there is no visible activity while loading takes place, making it look like the program never launched.