Cross-Platform Video Chat For Linux? 338
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I haven't found a plugin for it that provides video, and Gaim-vv hasn't been developed in over two years and is so out of date that it's still going by Gaim and not Pidgin.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?"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
You can use Kopete in Gnome (Score:2, Informative)
Just because it uses the KDE libraries doesn't mean you can't run it in Gnome (provided you have the KDE libraries)
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.
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.
Re:Patience (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: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 ).
Re:Skype (Score:3, Informative)
The AIM part. The guy is interested mostly in IM video chat, not Skype or Ekiga SIP.
Open Wengo has always worked for me... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Well... (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:Skype (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Skype (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Skype (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:You can use Kopete in Gnome (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.
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.
GYachI (Score:2, Informative)
Gizmo (Score:2, Informative)
Is there a reason you haven't looked into Gizmo?
http://gizmo5.com/ [gizmo5.com]
Linux, Mac, Windows
Has video conferencing. Though, I do have to honestly say I don't know if it works on Linux (I hear other people raving about Gizmo, and its video conf. abilities, and they're linux users, so I assumed... so sorry if I'm leading you off on a wild goose chase).
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:Ekiga (Score:2, Informative)
Same here; most everyone with whom I've tried to communicate complains of high-pitched squeaks (both in-bound and out-bound). I'm using Debian Lenny/Sid and they're using WinXP SP2. :\
Re:Open Wengo has always worked for me... (Score:2, Informative)
I tried openwengo, but you can't register an account anymore or am I missing something? When I try to do so, it says that this service is temporarily unavailable.
Meebo (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wrong attitude. (Score:1, Informative)
If he can't do it right... Then he should quit building shit for free.
FREE isnt a reason for it to suck. thats some lazy fuck thinking.
Re:Skype and KDE applications run fine under Gnome (Score:2, Informative)
I can vouche for that, Pidgin is great and all, but there is just something about kopete that is trully awsome. Maybe it's the smooth animations, the nice chat layout, the configurability or the fact that it has voice+chat (though I've never used them).
I can also say that I am currently using kopete under gnome with no problem what-so-ever. just install kopete and it will add any libraries it needs (I didn't need much since I also use Amarok under gnome)
Re:Ekiga (Score:3, Informative)
And why would your friends with windows be using ekiga? gnome-meeting (now ekiga) always used to call directly into windows netmeeting. they don't need ekiga
Re:Ekiga (Score:3, Informative)
(from Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
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 (;
EVO (Score:2, Informative)
Technically its for the physics community, but its free and everything you're looking for.
Try http://evo.caltech.edu./ [evo.caltech.edu]
Is written in Java Web Start so its about as cross platform as you can find. It seems to work with most video cameras and microphones. It also features the following:
-Group Chats
-Screen Sharing
-Whiteboard
-Hard line call in to call from a phone line
Its for the physics community, so try not to abuse it. It should be fine if you just use it to chat.
Since most can't read.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Skype (Score:2, Informative)
Re:QuteCom (Score:3, Informative)
QuteCom runs well on a number of platforms [qutecom.org].
The following platforms has a status of "good":
In addition, as of five months ago:
I trust prebuilt binaries for all the platforms are coming soon.
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.