Cross-Platform Video Chat For Linux?

Ethan1701 writes "Some of my friends are using iChat to stay in touch and gap the distance of the Atlantic. I'm feeling left out on my Fedora Gnome based desktop. Is there a good program for Gnome that provides cross-platform instant messaging and video chat? This rules out Skype and aMSN, as well as any other app that's specific for the ICQ/AOL Network. Kopete is for KDE. Pidgin doesn't intend to develop video-chat, I haven't found a plugin for it that provides video, and Gaim-vv hasn't been developed in over two years and is so out of date that it's still going by Gaim and not Pidgin. Do Slashdot readers have an application that meets these needs? Maybe even one that surpasses iChat?"

Comments

Ekiga

[corsec67]

http://www.ekiga.org/

Ekiga seems to do what you want, it has pretty good support for various kinds of webcams in Linux.

Re:Ekiga

[cs668]

I've had good luck with Ekiga on Linux, but my friends that use windows have stability problems with it.

It will stop sending audio, and after one call can not make anymore without the system being restarted( this is on Vista though so who knows the cause ).

Re:Ekiga

[Soruk]

I'll second this. While I've found Ekiga in Linux to be reliable, friends who have used the Windows version (in WinXP) have suddenly found themselves transmitting high-pitched loud squeaks.

Re:Ekiga

[Warbothong]

Gnome seems to be adopting Empathy ( http://live.gnome.org/Empathy ) as their default messaging application (they used to use Gossip). Empathy includes voice and video support (although I've never got it to work myself), so it seems unclear at the moment if Ekiga will remain part of Gnome.

As a side note, I've never got Ekiga to work either, but this is something to do with NAT traversal which doesn't seem to work even after forwarding the ports given in the documentation.

Re:Ekiga

[Anonymous Coward]

Same here; most everyone with whom I've tried to communicate complains of high-pitched squeaks (both in-bound and out-bound). I'm using Debian Lenny/Sid and they're using WinXP SP2. :\

Re:Ekiga

[Anonymous Coward]

And why would your friends with windows be using ekiga? gnome-meeting (now ekiga) always used to call directly into windows netmeeting. they don't need ekiga

Re:Ekiga

[Daengbo]

Clients supporting Jingle:

• Coccinella
• Google Talk
• Miranda IM (using the JGTalk plugin and mediastreamer2)
• Spark (windows version only)
• Kopete (since 0.12)
• FreeSWITCH
• Jabbin (2.0 beta2)
• Psi (experimental support in 0.11)
• Gajim (experimental support)
• Telepathy Gabble
• Freetalk (experimental support in 1.90)
• GTalk2VoIP Publicly open Jingle-to-SIP gateway, allows Google Talk and other Jingle based client to make and receive SIP calls.
• Talkonaut Free mobile VoIP (mVoIP) software for Symbian and Windows Mobile smart-phones. Based on XMPP and Jingle protocol. Uses a set of narrow-band Speex codecs to fit audio stream into poor GPRS data connections.

  (from Wikipedia

Re:Ekiga

[shtrom]

I've had good luck with Ekiga on Linux, but my friends that use windows have stability problems with it.

The thing is that Ekiga is an SIP client, so there is no need for the other party to be using the same program (yay for standards-based interop!).

Ekiga works well for me under Linux, and there is a vast choice of (free as in beer) SIP clients for Windows.

It is worth to note that ekiga.net can provide SIP account (and STUN server) for free.

No reason not to go for it, then (;

Re:Ekiga

[mgcarley]

I think I may be missing the point of this question - how does this rule out Skype?

I use it with my Logitech webcam on Linux and it seems to do just fine... I can even talk to people on Macs. And Windows when their machines are working/not full of viruses and spyware and such.

Perhaps I'm blind or misreading something, but I don't see SIP client specified anywhere in the original question.

Patience

[QuantumG]

Pidgin doesn't intend to develop video-chat

http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/GSoC2008/VoiceAndVideo

"Making good progress: it works"

So its coming along.

Re:Patience

[Enderandrew]

4 years ago, it mostly worked. Gaim said merge the fork back in, and we'll finish it. Except I watched SVN and the whole branch was dusty and ignored for years, despite being the most requested feature. One could argue that the fork accomplished what Gaim couldn't, and merging the fork back in killed it.

It is a GSOC student who is putting the feature in now, not the core Gaim/Pidgin devs, which says something. Years later, a student did it part time over the summer, where as a large team couldn't begin to touch it for years.

Re:Patience

[Enderandrew]

True, but one could contend the protocol market is easier now than it was 4 years ago. Goolge uses Jabber, and so does AOL, which used to frequently change their protocol to screw with third party clients. I know Pidgin supports tons of protocols but AOL/Google/Microsoft/Yahoo are the big ones. Two of those are much easier to support now.

Skype

[Deltaspectre]

It's cross platform and video chat definitely works, I don't see the submitters problem with it.

Re:Skype

[Enderandrew]

Skype 1 doesn't do Video on Linux, but I'm pretty sure it works with Skype 2 and above on Linux.

Also Kopete is cross-platform these days with binaries on Solaris, BSD, Mac, Windows and Linux.

Re:Skype

[bill_mcgonigle]

but I'm pretty sure it works with Skype 2 and above on Linux

Yeah, I think the submitter could have skipped Ask Slashdot if he had RTFW. I use Skype to video chat with a Mac, an n810, and my daughter's eeePC (pink, of course).

If you want to dismiss Skype on the grounds that they're rabidly anti-GPL, fine, but that wasn't a requirement.

Re:Skype

[Eugenia Loli]

The AIM part. The guy is interested mostly in IM video chat, not Skype or Ekiga SIP.

Re:Skype

[evanbd]

Skype *audio* doesn't work here (Debian, skype 2). Not to mention that it seems to use a brain-dead chat protocol the loses messages into the aether for extended periods (hours, sometimes, and I've seen longer). I can fully understand the OP's reluctance to use it.

Re:Skype

[Shikaku]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype#Issues A lot of issues.

Re:Skype

[Enderandrew]

Actually Nokia is currently working on a QT port of Firefox. And you can use Kopete in GNOME as you mentioned.

Re:Skype

[leprasmurf]

Skype works perfectly on the Asus eee. I've used the video conferencing on the stock OS as well as Xubuntu to chat with my wife. She was on a windows box and I was on the asus. I did upgrade my ram to 2 gigs though, but it should still work.

Skype video chat works on linux...

[mgkimsal2]

with at least some cameras. I got some $25 walmart webcam and it works on Skype with my cheapo linux laptop. If the submitter is really hankering for 'open source' and 'practical' and 'easy to use', then he/she is SOL - there's no good options that satisfy all those requirements.

Empathy

[Tester]

Empathy has video chat using jingle, it is compatible with Google Talk on windows (if you use Jabber). And it uses Telepathy, so it supports many many protocols. That said, Voice/Video are currently only supported for Jabber and SIP, there is ongoing work to make it work with MSN too.

The Pidgin-vv work is actually very much alive and you should see a release soon.

Empathy

[pipegeek]

Empathy IM is worth mentioning. It's pretty basic right now, but it's been incorporated into the Gnome project and is developing rapidly. Check it out.

Skype

[StrategicIrony]

I don't understand.

I'm in Skype right now on my Fedora/KFCE laptop, talking with a friend in the Ukraine who is using Kubuntu and I just got off a conference with a few people in our office in California who use MacOSX and Windows Vista.

What am I missing about Skype that makes it unusable?

You can use Kopete in Gnome

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because it uses the KDE libraries doesn't mean you can't run it in Gnome (provided you have the KDE libraries)

Re:You can use Kopete in Gnome

[CSMatt]

While non-KDE Qt programs themselves load just as fast as their GTK+ counterparts, KDE libraries tend to take about 7-10 seconds to load in GNOME. To make matters worse, most of the time there is no visible activity while loading takes place, making it look like the program never launched.

Mercury Messenger (Java-based client for MSNMSGR)

[ezyzeke]

Mercury messenger is java based (and thus cross-platform) and uses MSN messenger service including webcam chat (I'm not sure about audio-only chat). I use it in Mac OS X and works quite decently, and it is available in with package installer for Mac OS X, deb (Debian/Ubuntu) and rpm (Fedora/Redhat/many Others), and it is also available as tgz. I'm not sure if it is open source, though. List of features (from their website): * Sign in with multiple accounts, Fast file transfering, Simultaneous sending & receiving webcam, Offline messaging, Extensive event notifications, User defined event actions, Single window (tabbed) conversations, Customizable contact list, Customizable message views, Custom status icons, Custom emoticons, Resource saving (Webcam streams, Display pictures, Emoticons), HTTP Proxy, Yahoo contacts, Audio/Video conference, Multi OS, Runs from USB stick, Language support Website: http://mercury.im/

Skype and KDE applications run fine under Gnome

[Anonymous Coward]

Despite the fact you said "this rules out Skype", and asserted the KDE applications won't work for you, in fact, both Skype and KDE applications will run fine under Gnome.

I personally use Gkype under Gnome with zero problems, although I've only played with the video-conferencing features and not used them in earnest.

Re:Skype and KDE applications run fine under Gnome

[supernova_hq]

I can vouche for that, Pidgin is great and all, but there is just something about kopete that is trully awsome. Maybe it's the smooth animations, the nice chat layout, the configurability or the fact that it has voice+chat (though I've never used them).

I can also say that I am currently using kopete under gnome with no problem what-so-ever. just install kopete and it will add any libraries it needs (I didn't need much since I also use Amarok under gnome)

Open Wengo has always worked for me...

[rubbsdecvik]

http://www.openwengo.org/ Works well for me. Cross platform and works well for me.

Re:Open Wengo has always worked for me...

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried openwengo, but you can't register an account anymore or am I missing something? When I try to do so, it says that this service is temporarily unavailable.

Re:Well...

[BPPG]

Actually, that's an interesting point. Not that you actually need to be running Ubuntu, but if you're running any Linux desktop you should be able to do anything that's reported to be doable in Ubuntu. It might just take a little more elbow-grease.

GYachI

[zentagonist]

If you have a Yahoo account or aren't opposed to getting one, you could give GYachI a try ... it looks like it hasn't been worked on in almost two years, but video messaging works pretty well http://gyachi.sourceforge.net/

Gizmo

[johnkzin]

Is there a reason you haven't looked into Gizmo?

http://gizmo5.com/

Linux, Mac, Windows

Has video conferencing. Though, I do have to honestly say I don't know if it works on Linux (I hear other people raving about Gizmo, and its video conf. abilities, and they're linux users, so I assumed... so sorry if I'm leading you off on a wild goose chase).

It's not GNOME

[pavon]

That was the submitters problem with it, along with kopete, which also works well. Stupid I know.

Meebo

[phoebe]

For that Web 2.0 glamour, Meebo.com runs the popular IM services on a webpage and supports video chat via Adobe Flash and v4l/v4l2 support. http://meebo.com/

Re:Wrong attitude.

[Anonymous Coward]

If he can't do it right... Then he should quit building shit for free.

FREE isnt a reason for it to suck. thats some lazy fuck thinking.

EVO

[Zerocool3001]

Technically its for the physics community, but its free and everything you're looking for.

Try http://evo.caltech.edu./

Is written in Java Web Start so its about as cross platform as you can find. It seems to work with most video cameras and microphones. It also features the following:

-Group Chats
-Screen Sharing
-Whiteboard
-Hard line call in to call from a phone line

Its for the physics community, so try not to abuse it. It should be fine if you just use it to chat.

Since most can't read..

[dbcad7]

It seems most people seem to ignore the fact that the submitter wants something AOL IM specific.. I can understand that, but haven't found anything like that.. The easy solution (ignoring the parameters like everyone else).. would be for the Windows side to use MSN Messenger, and the Linux side to use aMsn.. as MSN is a no brainer for the windows users, and aMsn supports webcams.

Re:QuteCom

[vinsci]

QuteCom runs well on a number of platforms.

The following platforms has a status of "good":

• Windows 2000
• Windows XP
• MacOS X
• Debian
• Ubuntu
• Fedora
• SUSE
• Mandriva

In addition, as of five months ago:

• Gentoo is "not tested"
• Windows CE "doesn't work yet"

I trust prebuilt binaries for all the platforms are coming soon.