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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."
Just don't get it wet... or feed it after midnight...
-FL
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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What about a BSD compatable client? Last I checked... there are no x86 voip clients that run on openbsd. Although, it is great to see them creating a cross platform client.
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.
Michael Robertson of MP3.com and the Linux distro formerly known as Lindows. Say what you want about the guy, he's a very good self promoter and knows when to jump on a new technology. This should be interesting to watch.
Having competing standards and companies in the field will make for better services for the users. Open standards are great, since they improve interoperability and reliability. For example, people can writing their own clients, etc.
However, the project is not open-source. At least, their about us page doesn't mention it. They only say:
Methinks someone at the Register got confused. Those other clients written may be open-source or even free software, but the client they offer surely isn't. Their server software is not even offered for download (nor should it necessarily be -- that's what they want to make the money off, of course).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."
Credit where credit is due: Project Gizmo is yet another invention of Mp3.com creator, Lindows/Linspire creator, long-time enemy of Microsoft Michael Robertson.
Can't remember his connection to SCO, though...
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SIPs achillies heel is its inability to play nice once NAT and/or firewalls are added to the equation.
For me Skype's most important feature is its ability to play nice with firewalls and NAT.
Project Gizmo could do very well if it can attract users quickly enough. Indeed, Gizmo is even asking for suggestions on a "cooler" name under which to operate.
My picks:
Project Dealie-bob
Project Doohickey
Project Chingadera
Project Whatchamacallit
Project Thingamajig
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Although this project looks kinda interesting...
Finally a solution for Linux gamers that will actually be a reality. Solutions like Teamspeak (which doesn't work with ALSA and isn't even open source) don't work very well. It's exciting to finally hear that Linux gamers and Windows gamers can finally listen and talk to each other soon on one free client. Anyone use any teamspeak-like client on Linux to talk to other gamers on Windows and both can use the soundout without using ARTS or other similar methods?
Sounds a lot like /. ACs, execpt for the ability to reproduce. :)
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
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.
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It was'nt a gremlin, it was i belive, a "mogvai"(no i don't know how to spell it). It did'nt turn into a gremlin until you fed it after midnight.
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When will F/OSS fundamentalists learn that, sometimes, a company gets a Windows product out the door as soon as possible to meet deadlines, and they just have to do minor tweaks and a recompile to produce a (usually better) Linux version a few weeks after, and more often than not these days, when they announce it, they seriously do mean to put out a Linux version?
There's no pleasing some people. The state of Linux is what it is, but whenever I'm not happy with something (it tends to be OpenOffice and KDE these days, for bloat and speed reasons), I remember how much it has evolved and improved for the past 10 years, and really for free software, it's a great achievement.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Me and some of the people I know use Skype and we use Skype for mostly one reason: There's a mac version, and we need to have an application that both the PC and mac users in the circle can use.
If we could have a choice of more than one application to use for this purpose, that would be pretty cool. If we could have the option of an alternate application to use for this purpose that supported or had, like, even a fraction of the featureset of Ventrilo, that would make us deleriously happy.
That said... I may (or may not, depending on my degree of laziness) in the indeterminate future be writing a network-based application into which I want to embed a VoIP / voice chat aspect in the easiest way possible. How hard is it to get that Skype API access, would that be a good way to do it, and am I opening myself up to risk of some kind of license fuckery by doing so?
Come to think of it, how hard would it be to use the Skype API to write a Skype/Gizmo bridge?
And could they seriously not have come up with a better name than "Gizmo"? I mean come on.
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I've seen a lot of comments here about open vs. closed etc etc. The reason skype is so popular is because is just works and because the sound quality is so good.
So how good is Gizmo in comparison? Worse, Equal or Better?
Once that question is answered, then there may be something to talk about.
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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:
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...)
Some "ISPs" (eg UK Universities) have banned the use of Skype because of concerns about the "P2P" aspects of it - i.e. becoming a supernode. Their concern is both about bandwidth, but even more about the terms of the EULA.
"Gizmo" _seems_ to be free of such problems, and if that is so it could be a great advantage.
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.
Hi, I've really wanted to get a SIP phone/service but I'm very worried about security. Not only are the actual connections not encrypted but even the number I'm dialing from/to. Why don't all these VOIP companies use some sort of encryption? Are there any good ones that do?
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If you sign-up for Skype you can't make outgoing calls to cell phones or landlines, you need to get credit to do this and its a big jump for the average joe.
Although its a very small thing, its great to see project gizmo offer 25c worth of credit.
It allows the average joe to get their feet wet and they'll be more likely to make the jump and buy credit once they see how great it can be.
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Skype for all the gripe we may have against it for being closed source and not interoperable with other VOIP providers (FWD, Vonage etc..) does have the most important feature (and holds a monopoly for it too):Encryption
I didn't like having an old fart snooping on my AIM conversations a few years ago and I put an end to it very quick; I've been using Trillian and now Adium with secure IM and OTR encryption.
As much as I like having cheap calls and all I rather my private conversations stay.. well... private.
Skype is the only interplatform secure voice application.
Gizmo can take it's fancy gui and go right back to the drawing board as far as I'm concerned.
If you ask me voip with sip (ala vonage) is just a disaster waiting to happen, sooner or later somebody will write an article in NYTimes or some mass distribution newspaper about how insecure and easy it is for somebody on your campus/office/wifi... LAN to record your conversation and everybody is going to freak out.
Encryption should be built-in NOW before it is too late to change the standards.
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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
One of the greatest things about Skype is its API. Someone brilliantly wrote a plug-in for Skype that ties together my bluetooth headset with Skypes calling functions. This way, my headset works like a normal headset. Get it here: http://www.skypeheadset.co.uk/ Case in point:
1. The headset is automatically detected and Skype's sound devices dialog is changed automatically to use the bluetooth headset.
2. The headset sits in standby mode. Before this plug-in, the headset would have to be tied to the machine in its active mode which drained the battery within 4 hours even though there weren't any calls. This plug-in only activates the headset if there is an incoming call or you hit the quickdial button.
3. The quickdial button can be configured to any # you have in your phonebook.
Now show me any SIP client out there integrates bluetooth (even via third party plug-in) as well as Skype. If you can find one, then I'll ditch Skype in a heartbeat.
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
Repeat after me - security architecture must be open in order to be secure.
Skype developers saying they use 32768 bit keys means absolutely zero if you cannot verify that.
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Self-promotion: blixtra.org
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.