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Project Gizmo Challenges Skype
valmont writes "The Register is offering an interesting introduction to Project Gizmo, a new player in the Voice over IP field, poised to challenge Skype with its ability to interoperate with others thanks to the SIP protocol it complies to. Whereas Skype has selectively licensed usage of an API that offers limited insight into a closed protocol, a closed ecosystem solely controlled by one organization, the SIP protocol is open. Free open-source proxy/server implementations are sprouting up, and many developers are actively working on SIP clients. The Gizmo Project is the first to bring a truly-usable, user-friendly, cross-platform SIP client (Mac, Windows, Linux coming soon) to market. Meanwhile, theappleblog.com is already offering a Gizmo Project Wish-List to promote better interoperability between current and upcoming SIP providers, to make it more practical for users of disparate SIP clients to communicate with one another."
I've also posted a couple of tips and tricks on getting Gizmo working with other SIP systems, and also listing some other players in the SIP field.
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Ineen is similar to Gizmo but it also has IM and video. It seems like companies are falling over themselves to give away SIP clients these days.
Ineen and Gizmo are still client-server SIP systems, but to truly compete with Skype, the IETF is working on P2P extensions to SIP.
SunRocket, a VOIP company, has a hardware device called "The Gizmo" (see SunRocket How to Install and you'll see their adapter named "The Gizmo"). I can't find anything to indicate which came first though.
Didn't you ever hear the rule that once you have to explain a joke, it's no longer funny? ..heh...
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Stanaphone.com is the FIRST usable multi-platform SIP application. They offer more free things than Skype does (it's a real telephone number for example, for free). Quality is not that great though, I prefer Gizmo's.
Skype works well enough for me, the sound quality is more than okay for telephony, and the latency really isn't bad at all considering. And the Linux client is stable, and is a snap to install. However, I don't use it because:
1 - There's outgoing traffic from my box all the time. I know it's the P2P routing, but it's a bit unsettling to watch it chew away that much bandwidth
2 - It's made by the Kazaa people, and therefore who know what the hell it does behind your back (spyware?). I straced it, and didn't see anything nasty a-priori, but I don't trust Kazaa folks in that respect, period.
3 - The most disquieting feature: it goes some UDP magic to punch its way out of the firewall without telling you anything of what it does. That's sneaky. I know they claim it's for user friendliness and easy of installation and yada, but I say the networking code is too damn sneaky for my strict Unix-bred style of making sure software I install behaves predictably.
So I can't *wait* for an open-source (or at least open-standard, as Gizmo pegs itself) Skype replacement. The biggest problem of course, now, will be to have a compelling enough alternative that the millions of Skype users are willing to switch over, which isn't too likely.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
WRONG, NAT was SIP's weakness ONLY until the STUN protocol came out in 2003. Since then, all SIP clients use the STUN protocol to traverse NAT at least as well as Skype does. I've used EarthLink SIP, sipphone.com SIP, FWD through multiple layers of NATs without a glitch.
STUN is a major enabler of SIP
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Free speech, no. There's a EULA (http://www.gizmoproject.com/gizmo-end-user.html) which grants:
Among other items is this:
SIP by its very definition defines and enables P2P based on open standards. The SIP protocol is a signaling protocol, which enables two machines to find each-other on the internet and start exchanging data in real-time without going through a 3rd-party.
SIP opens the doors to far more than just real-time communications (text, voice, video), it also opens the doors to file sharing. It's a matter of someone writing a client that does file sharing over SIP. OH WAIT, someone already did as a proof of concept, and released the source code under a BSD-style license.
Voice quality is absolutely fantastic with Gizmo, but it entirely depends on which SIP client you use, and which SIP client the party you're calling uses. The SIP protocol, is only a signaling protocol. There are a buttload of other open protocols such as SDP (Session Description Protocol) that come into play and allow for infinite layers of interoperability based on users' computing and network resources. Through handshaking, two SIP clients can easily agree to the best codec to use.
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FreeWorldDialup has been doing pretty much the same thing for years now. They even have their own pre-configured software. If you don't like the Pulver Communicator you can always get one of half a dozen other SIP phones (soft or otherwise) that work with the service. They even offer a pre-configured version of The SJPhone, which is essentially what the Gizmo folks are offering. If you want a dial-out service FWD offers a choice of affiliates who can give you that portion a-la-carte!
So, why would you want to use Gizmo?
Signatures are a waste of bandwi (buffering...)
I'm not a big fan of Skype, but the "UDP Magic" you speak of is a normal technique used for bypassing firewalls in modern UDP applications. On the protocal level, it's no more of a dirty trick than network address translation is to begin with, and on the user level it's no more relevent than TCP vs. UDP. There's no security issue here.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Ok, we admit it's a lame name, but we think the product is solid. Here's why it's significant:
- It is based on SIP so other SIP hardware and software should interoperate. Check out http://www.siphardware.com/ for some of the hardware devices. I have a Call-in-One so a SIP call rings my home phone. Even a wifi SIP phone should work with Gizmo.
- It navigates firewalls and NATS. Skype has done this well, but SIP clients have generally not. Gizmo Project should penetrate just about any firewall or NAT setup. I used it successfully on Boeing's wifi service on flight to Frankfurt 2 weeks ago bouncing calls off satellites.
- It's Mac/Win today and YES, there will be Linux client shortly. No, really.
- We're committed to an open directory meaning that we will interconnect with everyone. We already connect to many big and small networks. See: http://sipphone.com/numbers/. We do enum lookups. We even support the intriguing DUNDI extension for Astericks. I want VOIP world to be like email where one address is reachable by everyone. I hope VOIP does NOT become like IM where AOL can't talk to MSN who can't talk to Y, etc. If you care to read more about why I think this is important, you can go to: http://michaelrobertson.com/.
- All calls on IP network are free as is voicemail, call recording, conference calling, etc. (try calling 1-222-xxx-xxxx and create an instant conference call with unlimited number of callers.) Only have to pay if touching the PSTN. We do give you 25 cents for free to check out the PSTN quality.
- Be nice because it's just beta software! Thx.
-- MR
The license for Gizmo Project software is quite clear, the software doesn't even qualify for the weaker standard of "open source" (weaker than "free software" which requires that the user have permission to make private derivatives):
The company offers what they call "Opensource support", which appears to be little more than name-dropping. But I expect people around here to know better than to take on faith whatever a proprietor says.
At the very least, even if there is no intention to bamboozle users into adopting the software, this is yet another use of the term "Opensource" which shows how people don't understand what that term means. Reminiscent of examples of same from the FSF essay on the differences between the free software and open source movements (examples include Neal Stephenson's writing, the State of Kansas' definition, and a particularly interesting example from a trade show in late 1998).
As a result of a little digging into Project Gizmo, I still see no real competition for GNOMEMeeting. I see one more proprietor asking me to install a mysterious program on my computer so that the proprietor can do something on my computer that I am prohibited from inspecting, sharing, or modifying.
Digital Citizen
I often use skype, but in the quest for a SIP# along with my skype experience, I tried this yesterday.
I is a fairly hopeless alternative to skype, at least for the time being. Gizmo gives you "free" minutes of which you can use to test the system, but, try as I might, I was unable to make a call outside of the US, as 001, the country code for the US was prefixed onto any number I entered in.
Add the random shutdowns when editing certain options (of which there are a distinct lack of) and odd, finicky menus which stay open and dont have a close button, and you have yourself Gizmo.
Having said that, if they can sort those problems out then they will be onto a winner. It is certainly far easier setup than any other SIP/softphone system Ive used.