Google Eliminates Gizmo5 Client For Linux

cuttheredwire writes "Evidence on the Gizmo5 forum (login required) confirms that since Google's takeover of Gizmo5, only the Windows, Mac, and iPhone clients are available for download from the official Web page. The Linux download link no longer works. This is a potential problem for happy Linux users with paid-up credit in their Gizmo5 accounts if they need to reinstall the software. A back-door download is still available, although it is speculated on the forums that it will go away soon. Does this mean that (as with other Google projects such as Google Talk) Linux will be the poor relation for Google Voice also?"

Comments

Protest this.

[Zombie Ryushu]

Do not allow Linux users to be silenced

Re:Protest this.

[gabebear]

I'm very confused... I've been using Gizmo for years and there has never been an official iPhone client, and the best thing about Gizmo is that it uses REAL SIP, so it works with any standard SIP client(unlike Skype).

Chrome OS?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since Google is busy on its own linux-based Chrome OS, I would be surprised if they weren't planning on providing a linux client anytime soon. My guess would be that they're making a linux client to ship with ChromeOS that is kickass, compared to the Gizmo5 builds of windows/mac.

Re:Chrome OS?

[johnsie]

ChromeOS is the ultimate spyware

Re:Chrome OS?

[ColdWetDog]

Google simply understands that Linux users have no friends, thus have no need for face recognition and are just trying to keep everything neat and streamlined.

Re:ok now more seriously--

[Anonymous Coward]

Gizmo does use SIP. I have an Asterisk box for my home phone that registers to their SIP server.

Mindless panic as usual

[cybereal]

Gizmo, entirely unlike Skype, is based on standard SIP interfaces. You don't need their proprietary client to use the service.

Just pick your favorite SIP client, preferably with a lot of codecs and STUN support, and get on with your day.

Panic over!

Re:Time to learn a lesson about Linux support

[clang_jangle]

Or you know, maybe Google just feels that there is no pressing need for them to provide their own client merely to use a service which employs an open protocol to which any *nix user already has easy access.

Are you sure?

[akcpe]

Um, i checked the gizmo5 site this morning and the Linux client is still on the download page with the OS X and Windows versions.

Re:Are you sure?

[clang_jangle]

So are you saying that the real story here is that one Linux user decided to install it while the server was momentarily down, freaked out and wrote a panic-mode slashdot submission which was then published to the front page with zero fact checking?

Why, that's just shocking! :D

You want ReactOS

[tepples]

If we could combine the transparency of Linux system and its expert friendliness, with the user friendly GUI characteristics of Windows and Windows backwards driver and app backwards compatability, it would be a winning combination.

Windows drivers rely on services provided by the NT kernel. So the only way to ensure compatibility with Windows drivers is to reimplement the NT kernel. ReactOS attempts to clone Windows NT 5.x thoroughly, but it's nowhere near ready for prime time. So let me sum up your rant: "I'm disappointed that development has concentrated on Linux rather than ReactOS."

Re:Google: Community Taker, Not So Much Giver

[chabotc]

Color me confused, this is a brand of open source that I haven't heard of before: Are you saying that any company that uses open source software should also support Linux with all their projects?

Can you please point me to the text in the GPL/APL/BSD licenses that states that?

Or are you saying that companies *shouldn't* use open source software if they are not willing to see (by most recent estimates) a 1% to 2% Linux desktop market share as a primary platform?

Personally I would be happy that a large company is contributing new programming languages (Go), support & employ the main guy behind Python, contribute to the kernel, released their webbrowser and mobile phone os as open source, organize and sponsor a 'Summer of Code' projects that contribute to open source, spend heaps of cash sponsoring large open source conferences, and, well released over 100 open source projects?

In fact Google is one of the larger contributors to the OSS movement that I personally know of

Citing the "do no evil" does not make you automatically cool, smart or insightful imo, just boring and lame (something about crying wolf comes to mind)

Put DOWN the pitchfork

[tyler_larson]

Gizmo uses SIP, and there's no shortage of SIP clients for Linux that are better maintained and more consistently compatible with Linux's ever-changing audio interface. Don't be silenced, but don't riot either.