Slashdot Mirror
GnomeMeeting 1.0 Videoconferencing/VoIP Released
Howard Vanbel writes "Apparently the developers of GnomeMeeting have released the final v1.0 version of the videoconferencing/VoIP software. GnomeMeeting started as a final studies work at the Department of Computing Science and Engineering of the Universite Catholique de Louvain and after 3 years of development, GnomeMeeting 1.00 is ready!
GnomeMeeting is the most advanced Open Source VoIP and videoconferencing software available - there's more info in the project FAQ."
I hope to heck it has some option to avoid dynamic port mapping.
My BEFSR-11, she cannae handle it, cap'n!
Take a look at the screenshots of the configuration screens. While it might be obvious to someone who is an expert at these types of things, someone who just wants to have something that works will be confused.
There are no visual cues for the user that can show the user which audio codecs to choose, or what an ILS is, or even how to go about starting a session with a partner.
But it shore is purty.
I have been pwned because my
I skipped by most mention of teleconferencing utils as it seemed faddish to me. No 'videophones' ever really worked or sold, most people just don't want them in a home environment.
But for internal workflow, after having used an ichat based system I'm really taken by the idea. Being able to jump into a quick conversation instead of emailing, then jumping back out to get work done clicks with me so much better. Maybe it's that I don't have to think about spelling grammar typing and formatting when talking face to face!.
I've yet to check out this version of gm, but seriously give it a go, especially if interemployee communication is a necessary part of business.
vidio grab bag
And h323 is a dying dinosaur (basically ISDN over IP). SIP (& other more modern and lightweight *internet* (as opposed to telephony) protocols) is the way to go.
More interesting to me than GnomeMeeting is OpenH323, which uses the MPL. That will presumably allow other developers and existing chat programs to be compatible with it.
There's a plethora of standards for video chat. It's nice to see this product it based on an existing standard, and some code is available for that standard under a license suitable for commercial applications.
I would very much like to see encryption of the voice stream added to its list of features! This would really set it aside from the competition...
Cheers,
Chris.
Linphone and Kphone both manage to handle SIP, such that they interoperate well with Asterisk and FWD. I should hope that Gnomemeeting has support for at least SIP in their next release.
o ne.org/?lang=us&rubrique=1
http://www.wirlab.net/kphone/
http://www.linph
Just when Microsoft start phasing out Netmeeting, we get something compatible :)
I guess we should put a bounty up for someone to reverse engineer the MSN Messenger 6.1 webcam protocol. (And yes, I know what GnomeMeeting is - and is supposed to do - and also know that an IM is not the same, but still, people just want to communicate with their friends and family.)
I shall go and tell the indestructible man that someone plans to murder him.
Konference is afaik based on gnomemeeting.t s/konference/
http://developer.berlios.de/projec
A fine product. Great for personal or even corporate use. I've been following (and updating) this application since early 0.9x days. Best of luck, and hope you don't have any problems with M$ for the similarity in name between the project name and a M$ app.
You can compile it without GNOME already. Rewriting to another toolkit doesn't make sense, there is not one unique toolkit that will please everyone.
This really needs to be platform independent for it to reach critical mass. I can see the appeal, but until something compatible is implemented on Windows, OS X and Linux, etc. this will not be adopted.
Not a true port, but much of the working code has gone into konference. I personally wish that they would split out the guts into a server and then allow difering clients. Also, KDE has a nice sip with kphone. Perhaps, these will be merged together.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Any change to get this compatible with Apple iChat?
iChat AV is standards based, using the industry-standard H.263 video codec, the telephone-quality QuickTime audio codec (PureVoice QCELP), and SIP--the nextgeneration protocol for signaling.
Now all I need is some Video4Linux drivers for my webcam that work on the 2.6 kernel. Seriously why are these things so damn difficult?
----
Just curious, isn't Louvain in the Flemish part of Belgium? If so, wouldn't it be called "Katholieke Universiteit Leuven"?
;-)
Just nit picking
True, All the G"'s and "K"'s can really obscure the meaning of the name.
This is the reason that Skype seems to be succeeding where others have failed, despite using a closed and proprietary protocol.
NAT2NAT (establishing a direct connection between two firewalled nodes) really isn't that hard to do (just get both peers to fire some UDP packets at each-other for a few seconds to fool the NATs), so why are there no free and open protocols for low-configuration VoIP? (and if I have missed one *PLEASE* let me know)
Do you pronounce it "nomeeting"?
The problem is that products like these have just been cloning existing products already.. At this rate it will never take off enough to conquer the planet..
What needs to be done is something new.. a few ideas are:
-A framework which allows it to easily communicate with other apps.. Imagine programming something and having gnome meeting fully integrate into ur IDE allowing instantaneous updating of code on ur screen.. or allowing it to be easily integrated into stuff like dashboard with a easy framework (not sure if this is available)
-jabber support.. would make the product more future aware
- integration into firebird.. firebird supports extensions, imagine being able to accept calls on ur firebird window.. or integration into openoffice would be even better
-Webcam driver bounties (or big ppl forcing companies to make nix drivers for free).. unfortunately not many webcams work in linux, (in aus many ppl own swann opti-cam's which use a sonix chip which is unsupported).. Large linux companies like Sun could potentially use their influence to finally force the webcam companies to get up to speed with unix (not really gnomemeeting related).. the rest of unix drivers tend to these days be up to date except webcam drivers, because webcams are considered non critical by too many in linux, and up till recently weren't used much..
Not sure how the gnomemeeting code is though..
Here is an article by Steve Boyd about the importance of integration of IM and office apps: Real Time Revolution
It includes an interesting interview with an MS manager about what MS is doing with Live Connection Server and office apps.
I work from a home office, and if my clients videoconferenced with me I think the sight of me in my pajamas surrounded by Star Wars action figures might tarnish my professional image.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
Zero-configuration NAT circumvention is much easier than people think. You just get both NATed peers which want to send UDP packets to each-other to send a few packets to the other's NATs on the ports you want to use. Most NATs will then start to forward those UDP packets and hey presto! You have established a direct UDP link between the two peers and your user hasn't had to lift a finger.
All someone has to do is to combine this technique with somethink like Speex, make sure you have both Linux and Windows versions, and we have a free competitor to Skype using an open protocol. I would do it myself if I had the time.
I love to see both sexes taking an active part in open source development. Particularly when it's ladies like this.
Or do the developers just like hanging out in #SaucyTeens chat rooms?
Problem is quite different - those companies who produces webcams are trying to make them cheaper and smaller - therefore there is need for special driver in OS side. As for Linux producting such software, while it is closed source, it's difficult and expensive. Just buy such camera which is claimed to be work with Linux in internet databases - and problem will go away.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
Ah yes, but the UCL is located in Louvain-la-Neuve, not in Leuven.
There used to be one university in Louvain/Leuven, which was completely francophone even though Leuven is a Flemish city. In 1968 or thereabout, much protest arose against this situation. In 1971 the university split; the dutch-speaking 'Katholieke Universiteit Leuven' stayed in Leuven, the francophone 'Universite Catholique Louvain' moved to the newly built Louvain-la-Neuve (hence the name, meaning 'Leuven the new').
This sig under construction. Please check back later.
Just tried GnomeMeeting myself and it worked very well, I was very impressed. And I assume that GnomeMeeting 1.0 will just improve on the experience.
--- guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people ---
Well, similar proprietary software keeps its IP hidden away. In order to build an open-source app to do the same thing, you have to do that research all over again.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
I haven't done much (OK, anything) with GnomeMeeting or Video4Linux. A bit of googleing (googling?) doesn't turn up what I'm looking for so I thought I'd post here while people are still reading comments because I think I have a common question/desire.
Ebay has tons of my favorite computer, Compaq Deskpro SFFs, with USB and PII/350-PIII/500 CPUs for <$100 every day of the week. I'd love to be able to buy one (or a lot of 10) and add a cheap USB webcam (Logitech QuickCam Messengers are $50 at Circuit City this week, with $20 in rebates, for just one example) and make, basically, a videophone appliance. Hell, I don't even care if it does sound (I'm happy to use a landline for that) but I'd love to have cheap, consistant, decent-quality, OSS, easy-to-use-with-a-firewall* videoconferencing solution. Just something that I can do a basic install of $DISTRO, add GnomeMeeting, an el-cheapo webcam, and have it work. Kinda like buying an eMac and an iSight but $800 cheaper.
So, I guess my question is, does anyone know of a cheap, readily-available USB webcam that works with GnomeMeeting? Following that, is there a distro that works well with the above, out-of-the-box or close to? And can all this be done with only a handful of open TCP ports? My #1 concern is getting video back and forth.
* as in, no "open ports 1024-65,535" like NetMeeting wants.
(And please don't reply talking about how great iChat is. I know it's great but I can't to spend $1,000 on every member of my family just yet.)
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Most nat/fw/proxy's can be configured to work with h.323 without opening a bajillion ports to the world. The down side is that most methods only work for a single user at a time. Regardless, I would recommend the use of a gatekeeper on the edge somewhere to handle a multi-user h.323 environment. There are free ones (from openh323) and non-free ones (whitepine). There are even hardware based solutions, with features like multiple presence, conference management, and radius integration available.
Thank you for your time,
BBH
One of the best features of Gnomemeeting is that you can hook up your IEEE 1394 DV camcorder up as a camera. It works quite well.
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
How will GNOMEMeeting fit into the GStreamer framework?
--
make install -not war
... would be if a "meeting" could be initiated by a program (that I'd like to write, of course), and the program could participate as one of the parties.
... (plays Patient's comment).
Now I know you're thinking of games. In this case, the app is a program on a hospital's computer that wants to contact one or more people, send them messages, and collect their replies. One-on-one would be useful, but even more useful would be with N parties that could all talk.
Scenario:
Patient: Hello?
Computer: Hello, Mr Jones. Your surgery is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday at 9 am. Is this OK with you?
Patient: Um, no; I have another appointment at that time.
Computer: OK; I'll check with Dr Smith to see if we can reschedule. While I call him, what would be some other good times for you? (Starts dialing Dr Smith)
Patient: Any time that afternoon would be fine.
DrSmith: Hello?
Computer: Mr. Jones says he has a conflict with his 9am appointment tomorrow. Here's his comment
DrSmith: I'd have to reschedule my golf game, but I could do it at 4pm tomorrow.
Patient: That would be OK with me, too.
Computer: Mr Jones' surgery is rescheduled for 4pm tomorrow. Can you both verify this?
Patient: Yes, 4pm is a good time.
DrSmith: 4pm tomorrow is OK here.
Computer: Rescheduled. Good-bye.
So could GnomeMeeting support a "meeting" like this? If so, how might I find the docs and/or some sample code?
Yeah, I know there's some voice recognition in there that is non-trivial. The first tests would probably be somewhat simpler, involving a basic computer message and recording all the replies of the other parties.
The Open Source nature is fairly important. In the US and other countries, we're seeing some fairly extensive medical privacy laws passed. This emphasizes that we really must avoid closed-source, binary software, because you can't know what's hidden inside it. In the long term, such software must be completely open to examination and auditing. Any Open-Source tools that can do the job will be very interesting to a lot of people that I work with.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
So does anyone know offhand if there are drivers for Apple's iSight camera that will work with Linux and Gnomemeeting? I've got one gathering dust (it was the freebie at WWDC last year) and a Powerbook running Debian that might be able to use it.
--saint