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If at their download page(http://www.gizmo5.com/download.php) it lists Linux perfectly prominently, the link is just broken (pointing at a page which seems to have vanished). As the summary pointed out, the files are still there. Since gizmo5.com redirects to a page on google.com, I think a much better summary would be "Google accidentally breaks link while moving website of recently acquired company"

I don't know about you, but I can't seem to find any downloads unless I go to the specific site where they have it, you can't even get new membership it seems... Seems to me that google has packed up the product and is looking to move it elsewhere, maybe incorporate it in their own software perhaps? and the fact that you can't download linux version from http://www.gizmo5.com/download.php , seems to me to be more of a bug then a "kill the penguins" act, although I guess most of the posts here is going to assume so...

Google Voice by itself isn't a VoIP system, but Google Voice + Gizmo5 + Fring is. And it works now.

From everything I've read about this, it looks like they'd be setting it up similar to Gizmo's OpenSky. Skype would handle the bridging from Skype to SIP for you, and you just connect to them through SIP (as a SIP trunk, like you would with any SIP VOIP provider). So, while Skype is a huge pain to deal with in a corporate environment, you wouldn't have to. None of your apprehensions are necessary.

Now, Skype isn't doing this out of the goodness of their heart. They'll charge something for it -- either monthly or per minute. Look at the prices for OpenSky for an idea of what it might cost. Maybe they'll make calls to and from Skype users free. Maybe. If you don't want to be beholden to Skype for this, see my full comment below.

SIP is the underlying protocol that makes most VOIP work. If you're using Vonage, or Asterisk, or most other VOIP systems/providers, your phone calls are getting coordinated over SIP, with the audio sent back and forth on the side. Using SIP, Cisco systems can communicate with Asterisk systems, which can communicate with Microsoft SoundPoint systems, etc. Any of those systems can connect to a "SIP Provider" to get phone service.

Skype is off in its own little walled garden, with a special protocol and codec. There have been many attempts to link Skype and SIP, and they're usually pretty painful (and proprietary).

SipToSis is a program that will allow you to have a skype "server" that will connect sip calls to skype users and vice versa. It's a bit of a pain to set up, but it walks. He also offers a set of scripts to have multiple skype clients set up, load and unload them as necessary, redirect calls, etc. It's a huge, huge hack, but it works, and is much cheaper than previous solutions of this type.

There was apparently a beta test for an Skype channel driver for asterisk. This would allow someone to setup skype as just another input type (like a Zaptel analog phone connection, or a SIP trunk), and seemed to be the ideal solution. Either it never went anywhere, or they decided they didn't want me in the beta :(

Gizmo also offers a Skype trunking solution, similar to what Skype seems to be offering. They call it OpenSky. It looks like it would work pretty well for home users, but it would get pretty steep for businesses -- and how many home users would set up friggin asterisk, besides me?

So if you're a business, OpenSky or Skype's current beta is probably what you're looking for. If you're a home user or an admin who either can't wait or has too much time on your hands, give SipToSis a try. It's a bit of a pain to set up, but it costs $2-$14 dollars one time, as opposed to everyone else, who will charge monthly or per minute.

I do that on my home phone line (actually even simpler than that -- "Press 1 to continue in English"), and it works quite well.

Could you please provide a link that could explain how one would go about doing this themselves?

I'm using a Gumstix box running Asterisk with a SPA-3102 for the connectivity to the actual phone line proper, and a compact flash adapter (on the Gumstix) for storing voicemail. It also routes outgoing international calls to my SIP account with the Gizmo Project folks (much cheaper than AT&T, the local landline provider), and feeds incoming SIP calls into the house phone.

This was set up as a hobby project, so I wasn't going for a lowest-cost solution. If I were doing it again, I'd probably see about using my home router in place of the Gumstix box (I'm waiting for stable OpenWRT support for the WRT610N, with its USB host interface and 64MB of RAM -- more than powerful enough to run Asterisk in addition to its normal workload, with the voicemail storage and software that won't fit in 8MB flash kept on an attached external drive), or at least get one of the newer Gumstix motherboards with an FPU onboard to be able to receive and send faxes with iaxmodem (as the SpanDSP library it uses hasn't yet been ported to fixed-point, and so doesn't run acceptably on FPUless embedded hardware).

Once the hardware is set up, the actual Asterisk configuration is embarrassingly trivial, at least until I get around to implementing all the wishlist features I've been putting off. Should you decide to go the same route, drop me an email and I'd be glad to lend some assistance.

According to the Skype Blog, this is a text filter that only applies to TOM-Skype. If you use regular Skype, or if you use Skype or TOM-Skype for voice (rather than text) communication, you are still secure.

Yeah, I know... I don't trust them either. But even the NYT article didn't uncover any snooping of the actual voice calls (although the phone numbers and names of those involved in the call [b]were[/b] being recorded.)

I tried using Zfone with Gizmo a year or two ago, since I trusted the inventor of PGP to provide a better security solution than Skype's proprietary secret encryption. Unfortunately (at least at that time), the voice quality and ability to handle NAT wasn't as good in Gizmo as it was in Skype. Wonder if they've improved it yet?

Is there a reason you haven't looked into Gizmo?

http://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).

Personally, I'm continuing to use ooVoo even though it's now "out of beta" and not free. First of all, most of my calls are 2 or 3 way, and for that it is free, but I like to be able to record calls and I really like to be able to add PSTN lines to my conferences when people aren't available on a computer. I haven't bought it yet (it still seems to be free), but it looks like it will cost $10/month which isn't bad and everyone I do 4 to 6 way calls to doesn't need a subscription. The real key here for me is how easy it is to use because I never have problems with getting my clients and business partners onto ooVoo. It's quick, it's easy, it works with Mac or PC (Linux seems missing).

There are other solutions, like Sightspeed, which has good quality video, and Gizmo, and Palbee, but at the end of the day, you get what you pay for and I'm willing to pay a small amount for a good product. Skype has better audio for PSTN calls and if you can do high-quality (ie you have a dual core Intel and a logitech camera), the video quality is excellent. I'm happy to pay a small amount for Skype (and I do).

So, look at these:
http://gizmo5.com/pc/
http://www.sightspeed.com/
http://www.oovoo.com/
http://www.palbee.com/
http://www.ivisit.com/
http://www.eyeballchat.com/
http://www.dwyco.citymax.com/
http://www.counterpath.com/
http://www.parachat.com/
http://www.marratech.com/e-meeting.html
http://vsee.com/product.html
http://www.orgoo.com/
http://vawkr.com/
http://www.hearme.com/ (audio/video doesn't synch very well here, this is a version of PalTalk for biz)
http://www.avchat.net/avchat2-about.php
http://www.avchat.net/avconference-about.php
http://flashpioneer.com/

Any call to a Gizmo5 user is free. No matter when, no matter where, no matter how long. Free. There's no monthly service charge. Nor is there a set up cost. Gizmo5 is free.

The only calls you could ever have to pay for are calls to offline phones, i.e. mobile phones and landlines. But with Gizmo Call Out credits these calls are cheap and easy to administer.

VoIP to landland or cell phones are not free, at least if your time and friendships are worth something:

"Users NEW to the All Calls Free plan get 20 minutes of free calling simply by getting ONE friend to sign up for a new Gizmo account. There are no commitments and no hidden fees."

http://gizmo5.com/pc/network/mobile-or-landline-calls/

http://www.gizmo5.com/
Gizmo's linux client looked OK. But, their Windows client looked like Grayware to me.
Then again, thats their client for Windoze - serves right..!