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Skype VoIP Software Released For Linux
pmf writes "Skype Technologies has just released a free beta version of their software for Linux. Skype is well known P2P VoIP technology that, according to them: '...is addressing all the problems of legacy VoIP solutions: bad sound quality, difficult to set up and configure, and the need for expensive, centralized infrastructure.'"
Seeing as how this is from the Kazaa people, are we to expect spyware in this product?
The most information I've found is that the software is made by the makers of KaZaa, who is notorious for trying to make money off of P2P. Does Skype have a business plan? Is there spyware/adware/malware? Anyone know?
I can count to 1023 on my hands. Ask me about #132.
Before you download and configure this, test your connection out so see if it can handle VoIP. You can also play with different codecs to see if one is better than the other over your connection.
-ben
Another thing the Linux platform has thus been missing: Spyware.
I highly doubt that the guys who made Kazaa have taken some great leap into the world of moral business. Bastards.
Skype is hype...
* Skype is proprietary.
* Skype is using a proprietary protocol that no VoIP carriers/providers will be using.
* Skype has better sound quality? Let me laugh, it just happens that Skype is only able to do audio, so all your upload can be devoted to audio.
OK, Skype is a nice toy for Windows users. For Linux users, there is GnomeMeeting (http://www.gnomemeeting.org) and Linphone.
Free World Dialup makes a good product which I find is better and is the superior option of choices. You can find this with the Google searches for terms like Free World Dialup with the quotes surrounding.
Read journal when you are not understand
Skype claims P2P but the voice has to go through at least one hop, so the latency is pretty poor and you need other (hijacked) nodes. Check out this VoIP system, which has low latency, direct peer to peer communications even through NAT on both sides. Oh, and blowfish for encryption so good... it may be illegal in your country!
In related news, the baby bells have tapped the RIAA for their team of lawyers to start tracking down individuals that are using their communication networks and are not paying access fees like other phone companies do to operate over their lines. Then they will sue them until everyone gives up computers and goes back to taking the needle of the record so they can ring up the operator for the klondike 5 number of their friend down the street. I can't wait.
The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
Overseas, I've had less luck. From my place in Central NY, my Skype calls to a friend in Amsterdam are generally intolerable, although he reports that it works fine when he talks to his brother in Philly. I've had poor but acceptable connections using Skype to talk to a friend in Madrid.
Voice quality has continued to improve slightly with each new release of Skype. But for me, the verdict is Skype is sensational within North America, and barely tolerable or outright unusable for calling overseas.
Still, I wish everyone had broadband and Skype. Even without taking the fact that it's free, it just sounds measurably better than standard long distance calls within the US.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
From the FAQ SkypeOut (what enables to call external phone numbers) is not enabled for the Linux version, and that could be what makes it worth, or different from other available solutions.... or is something common and widely used?
they internally alpha'd a Mac version as of June 16, 2004 (which went well) and expect it will take 2-3 months more for it to show up.
Are you talking about Ogg Vorbis or Ogg FLAC or Ogg Speex? Speex is better for that kind of task. :-)
"Speex is an Open Source/Free Software patent-free audio compression format designed for speech" and speex is part of the xiph foundation
download and burn linux with one click on windows
Just mentioning that skype is a cpu hog. This matters because it means it's not great for playing recent video games.
A great alternative is teamspeak which lets groups of players talk. Another alternative (I haven't tried this one) is Ventrillo.
Skype is great if you just want to use your computer for wireless chit chat.
I might as well plug the Jabra BT250 bluetooth headset while I'm at it. Wireless headset with up to 8 hours of talk time. I use this plus teamspeak to give me the freedom to wander my house and not loose contact with my gaming buddies. It also works nicely with my powerbook and my cell phone.
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I support spreading santorum
Nothing beats the ease of setup and use of my new VoIP phone with Packet8. $49 set up fee and they sent me a DTE.
Plug DTE into power, hub and my cordless phone base station and I had dial tone.
They assigned me a local number, so it is a local call from my office.
Free calls worldwide to other Packet8 scuscribers. Unlimited calls in US/Canada for people with regular phones. $20.59/month and that INCLUDES all taxes.
I get to use my cordless phone and speaker phones. I can take the DTE with me and my phone number follows me.
Oh, and Packet8 just introduced *real* E911, for the paranoid among you. (Note: If you take the DTE travelling with you and then call 911, it'll claim you're at your address on file -- back home.)
Father's Day alone saved me the $20 in what would have been LD charges.
For those that love the software phones, Vonage supports one that has a Linux client as well.
And VoicePulse will allow you to set up your own Asterisk server, hook in and use them as a PSTN gateway.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
As someone else mentioned - FreeWorld Dialup is a great way to go for voip:
- standards based
- Free
- Windows, Linux and pocketpc clients available
- Call 800 numbers and more
- Call to/from vonage customers
- get free phone number and have people call you
- Get a wisip phone (WiFi SIP) and you have the closest thing to a IP mobile phone you can get.
FreeWorld Dialup
I'm currently running windows and ipaq (pocketpc 2002) clients fine. And calling my home vonage service - no problem!
Just a note, I'm fairly anal about spyware/adware. I have AdAware, Spybot S&D, and SpywareBlaster on my Windows PC, and I keep them updated on a daily basis, and scan the computer before and after installation of just about any program, not to mention on a weekly basis no matter what.
I've been using Skype on my Windows PC for aboout 3 weeks now on a pretty regular basis to talk to some friends, and so far, it's worked pretty much as advertised, no complaints here, in fact, I'm pretty pleased with it, especially compared to previous VoIP programs I've used before. In that time, before and after installation and updates, none of my spyware scanner programs have detected any spyware, at least, none that I can trace to it. So, so far at least, the 'No Spyware or Adware' button on their website seems to be legit.
Dunno about the Linux version, but I figure it's pretty much the same way. And the fact that they were willing to change their Linux EULA over spyware concerns gives me a bit of faith in them. Sure, it's from the same folk as Kazaa, but at least so far, it doesn't seem to have fallen into the same trap as the official Kazaa client.
"Two things are infinite: the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the first one." - Albert Einstein