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Gizmo Project voice calling and IM is booming on Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, and Linux computers because Gizmo Project works well and connects with every type of device like wifi phones, other VOIP and IM directories like GoogleTalk and even the popular open source Asterisk PBX software. I think people are beginning to understand the difference between Skype who walls their customers in and won't play nicely with anyone and SIPphone who connects to everyone making it possible to have just one address. Next week SIPphone will announce closing of a major venture capital deal which will help the company grow even faster.

Gizmo Project voice calling and IM is booming on Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, and Linux computers because Gizmo Project works well and connects with every type of device like wifi phones, other VOIP and IM directories like GoogleTalk and even the popular open source Asterisk PBX software. I think people are beginning to understand the difference between Skype who walls their customers in and won't play nicely with anyone and SIPphone who connects to everyone making it possible to have just one address. Next week SIPphone will announce closing of a major venture capital deal which will help the company grow even faster.

Gizmo Project voice calling and IM is booming on Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, and Linux computers because Gizmo Project works well and connects with every type of device like wifi phones, other VOIP and IM directories like GoogleTalk and even the popular open source Asterisk PBX software. I think people are beginning to understand the difference between Skype who walls their customers in and won't play nicely with anyone and SIPphone who connects to everyone making it possible to have just one address. Next week SIPphone will announce closing of a major venture capital deal which will help the company grow even faster.

No, Asterisk is NOT for home users, as stated in above posts. What you are looking for is Gizmo Project which is really looking great. Plus you can call other sip networks! It provides all of the same functionality of Skype AND the network is open so you are not locked into using a company that makes stupid moves such as these. Try it out.

OpenWengo:
SIP compliant VoIP client (+ Video ?), Firefox extension, GPL: http://openwengo.com/

Ekiga:
VoIP and video conferencing application (H.323 and SIP) for GNOME, GPL: http://www.ekiga.org/

PhoneGaim:
VoIP system based on the Gaim instant messaging software and the SIP protocol, GPL: http://www.phonegaim.com/ (sponsored by Linspire: Some controversy exists over the perceived difficulty faced by non-Linspire users who wish to install PhoneGaim on their Linux system.)

sipX:
SIP based products (pbx, softphone, and supporting products), LGPL: http://www.sipfoundry.org/sipX/

Google's Libjingle:
Implementation of Jingle and Jingle-Audio (proposed extensions to XMPP), BSD License: https://sourceforge.net/projects/libjingle/

KPhone:
VoIP application for the KDE desktop environment, SIP, GPL: http://kphone.sourceforge.net/


Skype: http://www.skype.com/

Google Talk: http://www.google.com/talk/

Gizmo Project: http://gizmoproject.com/

If you were to look again for a good, free cross-platform VoIP setup, you wouldn't go wrong to look at SIPPhone's Gizmo Project system. They provide clients for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and unlike Skype, they use open standards, most importantly SIP. This means you can use the plethora of SIP-enabled hardware, as well as communicating with outside systems, such as Google Talk. SIPPhone also provides POTS gateways with *very* reasonable rates.

I'm not affiliated with SIPPhone, but I'm a very satisfied customer. Don't believe the Skype!

Yeah, I agree, now Skype seems really cheap.
And compared to Telcos it is. But when they get a monopoly - not so much.
Kinda like how Microsoft freed us from the shackles of mainframes only to later enslave us (Sorry about the melodramatic language)

Gizmo is standards based.

It's absolutely inconceivable that in a civilised country, anyone should have to licence "intellectual property" from anyone else just to do their job. This is nothing short of privatised taxation.

That's odd -- last I checked, I can call SkypeIn users from my GPS Cell phone, the POTS pay phone up the street, and from my Vonage account.

There are standards in this world for telephone systems, and Skype has to follow them in order to be accessable both to and from the rest of the world. It isn't as if Skype is the only telephony solution around, or like anyh Government is forcing its citizens to replace their existing telephony technologies for Skype.

Skype being propretiary is a problem, but not for the reasons you give. If you want to compete against Skype, it's not a problem -- Gizmo seems to be making a go of it without any serious problems. So long as Skype intergrates with the rest of the International telephony network, there is no problem -- competing with them won't be impossible at all, and won't require you to license anything from them.

Also on Skype's side is that at least they appear ready and willing to license their technology to a variety of hardware manufacturers.

The big problems with Skype being propretary are:

1. Platforms Skype Ltd. isn't interested in targeting won't be able to connect to Skype's network (at least without some software developer licensing the protocols from them). If you're on OS/2 and want to run Skype, you're SOL, and always will be.
2. You have to trust Skype Ltd's security analysis of their encryption and associated protocols. Much of Skype's protocols are currently "security by obscurity", and while they may well be up to the task, it's hard to prove this point due to a lack of source code,
3. You have to count on Skype Ltd. to improve the product over time, and have no ability to do so yourself.

This might come as a shock to some, but some people are okay with such things. Personally it's not for me -- I have Skype installed for those times when I must communicate with other Skype users (although given the choice I prefer iChat AV, or the X-Pro softphone that is attached to my Vonage account when I need to call a normal phone system user from my laptop while away from home), but otherwise wouldn't use it as my primary telephone system. But not all people are me, and not everybody cares so much about the use of open standards, so long as they get what they pay for and the cost is low.

So in conclusion I agree witth you that closed protocols are bad, but in this case not for the reasons you have given. The underlying telephone system is sufficiently open that any Skype-competitor can arrive on the scene and doesn't have to pay Skype a single penny for the privledge.

Yaz.

MP3.com sold to Vivendi/Universal for big duckets, now he's got DVD Jon working on this piece of glob-ware.

Perhaps Gizmo?

this may meet your needs

http://www.gizmoproject.com/

my ISP uses Asterisk and I can use http://www.gizmoproject.com/ to call them.

Bah, until I looked again then I thought Gizmo was OSS

Yes, those masses also decided to use Windows.

Keep with the masses, I stay on open protocols.

I am not a big open source advocate but for communications, there SHOULD be open protocols not controlled by some company.

I think Gizmo project does deserve the support. http://www.gizmoproject.com/ . It is built on open, tested protocols such as REAL SIP. Skype has nothing to do with SIP as parent reminds,

This time, I won't comment about Kazaa :)

Only applications like Gizmo http://www.gizmoproject.com/ and many other ones (which I don't use) connect to the International Standard-compliant Protocol known as SIP.

Indeed - I'm using sjPhone (closed source unfortunately) under Linux with Asterisk.

However, in the UK at least I think the protocol choice isn't the main issue holding back the adoption of VoIP. In order to get an internet connection you need to either get a cable modem (NTL or Telewest) or a DSL connection (any number of ISPs running over BT lines). The problem is that if you get a DSL connection you _have_ to pay for a POTS service too - for most people there's no point in using a VoIP service because they're already being forced to pay a subscription for a POTS line in order to get their internet connection and VoIP to PSTN gateways aren't really any cheaper per minute for domestic calls (i.e. not international) than BT.

Until everyone can get a decent internet connection from any ISP without being required to hand over a wadge of cash to BT for a POTS line as well then I don't see VoIP taking off.

(For the record, I won't get an internet connection from NTL because then I'm stuck with their ISP who's quality of service is absolutely abysmal).

VoIP not only needs to catch up but also be open like email, and unlike the divided IM space.
Unfortunately Skype is not the application which connects to an open network.

Only applications like Gizmo http://www.gizmoproject.com/ and many other ones (which I don't use) connect to the International Standard-compliant Protocol known as SIP.

If you want voice chat (VoIP) on Linux then you have a good selection too (I don't know which are SIP compliant and which are not though):

http://www.phonegaim.com/
http://cockatoo.mozdev.org/
http://www.gizmoproject.com/
http://www.linphone.org/
http://www.wirlab.net/kphone/
http://www.minisip.org/
http://www.sflphone.org/
http://www.sipfoundry.org/
http://www.twinklephone.com/
http://www.openwengo.com/
http://yate.null.ro/
http://www.divmod.org/projects/shtoom

VoIP not only needs to catch up but also be open like email, and unlike the divided IM space.
Unfortunately Skype is not the application which connects to an open network.

Only applications like Gizmo http://www.gizmoproject.com/ and many other ones (which I don't use) connect to the International Standard-compliant Protocol known as SIP.

If you want voice chat (VoIP) on Linux then you have a good selection too (I don't know which are SIP compliant and which are not though):

http://www.phonegaim.com/
http://cockatoo.mozdev.org/
http://www.gizmoproject.com/
http://www.linphone.org/
http://www.wirlab.net/kphone/
http://www.minisip.org/
http://www.sflphone.org/
http://www.sipfoundry.org/
http://www.twinklephone.com/
http://www.openwengo.com/
http://yate.null.ro/
http://www.divmod.org/projects/shtoom

I generally use Gizmo http://www.gizmoproject.com/ as it is Internation Standard SIP compliant, whereas Skype is not compatible with any other service.

But there are also lots of other Applications out there which are standard compliant and work on a large number of different platforms.

Skype are just going for a service lock-in.

Ok, found something, but it still doesn't give any details. Doesn't give me much confidence in it...
Urgh, even worse. Someone working for gizmo said We cannot release this information. when asked about details on the encryption.

Ok, found something, but it still doesn't give any details. Doesn't give me much confidence in it...
Urgh, even worse. Someone working for gizmo said We cannot release this information. when asked about details on the encryption.

Gizmo Project

http://www.gizmoproject.com/

Its free and looks just like skype but without the bandwidth thing, well at least I was unable to find anything about it in the EULA.

http://www.gizmoproject.com/

It's not very Off topic anyway.

They made World standard SIP protocol distributed in an open source way.

Support is plain amazing, they replied to my crash report (which _I_ included my mail) in 20 minutes which shocked me.

I wonder if /. geeks have Kazaa installed in their machines as it's coming from same company? Right, eBay purchased them, code is still same, closed source.

A funny fact which I can't stand without saying is, I wanted to make sure Skype is coming from Kazaa, not iMesh and clicked
http://www.kazaa.com/us/products/

Shows a turkish betting ad in their product page. Um, betting in foreign sites is kind of "grey" matter in Turkey which many banks won't allow.

No, reason is not our islamic wannabe govt. It is that, there is already a betting service in Turkey which is bound by law and governed perfectly. What I understand is, Kazaa did not change at all. Always dark stuff...

Yea, use Skype people, PROTECT YOUR FREEDOM! with a company invented mass spyware.

The problem is, I don't have any respect to Skype founder which is responsible for most clever, evil spyware on Earth, Kazaa.

There are open ways to implement a distributed SIP protocol, see

http://www.gizmoproject.com/

I am not using a distributed, closed source protocol which is coming from one of inventors of original spyware.

If Robertson's a failure we need more of them.

Lets review:

- The guy is in the 40 richest under 40
- He help defend the first MP3 player to make it legal
- He galvanized support for MP3 to make it the de facto standard
- He resisted all efforts to add DRM to any of the music on MP3.com
- He sold company for $400MM
- He started Lindows and got $20MM from Microsoft to change the name to Linspire
- Started SIPphone to promote open standard VOIP with http://gizmoproject.com/
- Launched IMFederation.com to promote open standard IM
- He's given millions to open source initiatives (linspire.com/opensource)

I don't know what he's doing at MP3tunes or with DVD Jon, but I'd consider his resume pretty solid. He's a defender of open standards. He's opposed to DRM. He's not afraid to stand up to media companies or Microsoft. He's not just a tech guy but he's also made real money which he uses aggressively to promote causes he agrees with like Linux on Xbox.

I think he rates at or near the top. Surely he's done more than Andreeson, Cuban and other one trick ponies.

Of course there's no pleasing the slashdot crowd.

Linspire already has support for dvd playback so I kinda doubt he'll be working on DVD stuff... My bet is that he will be hacking on the Skype protocols to get Gizmo to be compatible with it. That way Gizmo will work on Skype, but not vice-versa.

http://www.gizmoproject.com/

The only VoIP "solution" than really matters in the long run is SIP. It will eventually win out because it's an open standard, and already supported by the popular Gizmo Project (http://gizmoproject.com./ I'm currently using an analog telephone to SIP adapter, and calls to other SIP users directly over the net are clearer than PSTN-to-PSTN calls by a great margin. To handle dialing sip addresses like brokenladder@iptel.org, you just register with a free ENUM number at enum2go.com (uses the standard e164.arpa) or get one at e164.org for instance. Then you can go to brokenladder.com and look at the contact page to call me and test out your equipment ;)

I've been flirting for a while with switching to Gizmo Project. Now there's a good reason to do it even if one has to persuade their contacts to make the switch too.

http://www.gizmoproject.com/)

I've been flirting for a while with switching to Gizmo Project. Now there's a good reason to do it even if one has to persuade their contacts to make the switch too.

http://www.gizmoproject.com/)

hm, correct link is
this.

Gizmo, anyone?

What's more, it's based on an ancient fork of Gaim, so the developers naturally don't have time to waste on it. It'd be great if the Gaim folks added some softphone capabilities, but they'll likely do it starting from the modern codebase. Or someone else will write a plugin.

Last but not least, the people who created and then later abandoned phonegaim did so because they turned their efforts to creating the closed-source, proprietary replacement for it: Gizmo.

This they have no intention of putting under an open-source license either. They like to use the word "open" as much as possible on their web site to confuse people into thinking they're open source, but they're not. Frankly the more I learn about Linspire, the less I like them, for just such actions as these. Give your money to a company that supports free software.

the promises it makes look really nice (as opposed to the current user interface, i hope they fix that), but does it a promise a single feature that gizmo doesn't already have? (i mean, modulo linux support; gizmo project promise to add that soon.)

This is an "alternative to Skype" in the same way that Google Talk is - it's an alternative if you happen to be running Windows 2000/XP. I have too much to do during the day to mess with running Windows, so it looks like I'm sticking with Skype or GizmoProject. No affiliation with either, aside from liking the fact that they work on more than one OS.

"Skype is currently the only provider to allow calls to landlines and cellphones." Actually, there are two other services right now that offer calls to landlines and cell phones. 1) Skype Out. This is one of the paid services from Skype whereby for a very low fee (about 2 cents per minute for US residents) you can use Skype to call out to landlines and cell phones anywhere in the world. 2) Gizmo Project which is a US based opened source version of Skype which many users say offers even better sound quality then Skype. Like Skype, they also offer a call out service called Gizmo Call Out which can also be used to call landlines and cell phones (for about 1.8 cents per minute for US users) anywhere in the world. http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/ http://www.gizmoproject.com/call-out.html

Gizmo Project http://www.gizmoproject.com/ is the right solution because it is SIP based so it can connect with anyone's directory. It DOES have sophisticated NAT traversal technology which is as good as Skypes.

THey DO have PSTN connectivity which Yahoo, MSN, Google don't have.

It's available for Mac/Win/Lin TODAY. IT's not vaporware like MS garbage.

Plus it has call record, free voicemail and lots more.

I think he meant VOIP combined with instant messanger....

In that case, Gizmo Project fits the description nicely.

Gizmo Project uses SIP and JUST WORKS.

And there's more! http://www.gizmoproject.com/ Gizmo is out there with a very good software.

Gizmo also lets you call landlines and mobiles.

Skype is currently the only provider to allow calls to landlines and cellphones

What about the Gizmo project, which I believe I first saw mentioned right here on /.

Arnar

I don't think Google has any intention of aquiring Skype. Skype isn't SIP compliant, and while Skype might be more well known right now, SIP is a standard, and Google's own developer page highlights a desire to integrate with one of Skype's competitors, the Gizmo Project: http://www.google.com/talk/developer.html

Are they going to tell Skypes 54 million user base to take a hike or get a gmail account? Besidesm there are better clients than Skype out there like Gizmo and Google has already stated that they don't want to get involved with calls to/from PSTN networks.

Why would Google spend 4 billion basicially to aquire only the Skype software and have to send 54 million users packing when they can do it their own way for a fraction of the cost.

Especially after google already launched their own service suggesting they are now going to aquire Skype is an utterly stupid suggestion.

SkypeOut calling rates are still cheaper than the Gizmo ones. Until something seriously threatening comes out from this Google-SIPPhone alliance, I'll be sticking to Skype.

More than that, it's quite a bother to push all your contacts to download another piece of software. With all the IM services (MSN, ICQ, AIM, etc.), it's easy: you have multi-IM clients like Trillian/Adium/gaim/whatever. But can we really expect a multi-VoIP client?

Another possible Skype alternitave is Gizmo they charge more than Skype for calling PSTN but the client UI is pretty full-featured.

And GIZMO is still delayed.

If I get round to installing Voip on my Linux Yahoo Chat.
I will be ready to tell both companies to f*** off.

One word for Bad Companies Porting: DON'T Fucking BOTHER!!

I think that's along the lines of what Gizmo is trying to do.

I've used it and the sound quality is great, the record call feature is, well, nifty at least, and the mapping is fun if a bit off sometimes for things like cellphones (ohio in texas? wtf)

Anyway, there do seem to be some kinks on the windows side, my connection sometimes won't go through, but that might be related to hibernating and connecting from different places all the time.

Still rough, but fun and definately cheaper than something like a Vonage Soft Phone and in my limited testing every bit as capable, plus its cross platform.

http://www.gizmoproject.com/

EK

Dear Skype DONT BOTHER porting your software for Linux,
if you CANT BE BOTHERED in making it work properly.

I can't wait when this comes out for Linux.

Unlike many multi-OS applications:
Skype has been nothing but utter pain.

Well... fortunately, there is. Leaving aside gizmo there is a newborn app called jajah which supports an impressive number of protocols, among them IAX2 which was designed from scratch to work seamlessly behind NATs.

And it offers five minutes of free calls (yes, that is free calls to any phone, anywhere in the world) to any new registered user, and you don't even have to leave your card number! (hey jajah admins... BEWARE OF THE BOTS :) )

Although it's only available for Windows right now, I think it has a lot of potential to become a truly Skype killer

Anyway, it's always good to know that Skype has this kind of competition (jajah, gizmo, etc). That can only be good for all of us, voip users!

One of the main popular alternatives is Gizmo

http://www.gizmoproject.com/

This always works well and have never had any problems with it. The sound quality is absolutely superb.

Also works on Windows, Mac OS X, and about to be released Linux version too...

Well, there is an FOSS equivalent of Skype called the GizmoProject; it's from the same guy that started MP3.com and SIPhone. It does run on OSX and Linux.
Frankly, I'm surprised that more coverage isn't placed on SIP, as it totally annihilates VoIP. (Okay, maybe not 'totally', but it comes close...) But that's for another posting, I guess :)
-r.

GizmoProject uses SIP, which makes it a little bit more open.