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Gmail Video Chat Now Available On Linux

Posted by Soulskill on from the time-to-trim-your-beard dept.

borfast writes "If you use Gmail on Linux, you may have wondered when you would be able to use the voice and video chat that Windows and Mac users have enjoyed for quite some time. The wait is finally over; Google yesterday announced video support for Linux browsers. Now if only Pidgin could provide solid video chat functionality in their client..." According to the brief announcement on the Google blog, "Voice and video chat for Linux supports Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions, and RPM support will be coming soon."

113 comments

  1. Nice by TrisexualPuppy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Shows where Google's priorities (rightly) are. We have been waiting for years and can't even get a decently-working version of flash for Linux. Foreshadowing, perhaps?

    1. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or, you know, Google's more concerned about market shares, and would rather cater to the greater majority (Windows users).

    2. Re:Nice by flnca · · Score: 1

      Adobe Flash has been working on Linux for many years now. Only on some platforms like Ubuntu 10.04, Flash is a bit flaky. I'm running RHEL 5, and on that, Flash runs perfectly stable (the original ATI driver as well, btw).

    3. Re:Nice by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 4, Funny

      We have been waiting for years and can't even get a decently-working version of flash for Linux.

      Yes such a blessing Linux is! Years before iphone/ipad didn't have flash. We didn't have it first!

      --
      Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    4. Re:Nice by bcomisky · · Score: 1

      Adobe Flash has been working on Linux for many years now. Only on some platforms like Ubuntu 10.04, Flash is a bit flaky. I'm running RHEL 5, and on that, Flash runs perfectly stable (the original ATI driver as well, btw).

      I see your anecdotal evidence and raise you my anecdotal evidence. I've always had issues using the 64bit flash plugin on linux (on Fedora, Gentoo, and Ubuntu) with errant npviewer.bin processes using 100% cpu or crashing.

    5. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yoda? That you is?

    6. Re:Nice by flnca · · Score: 1

      Granted, the 64-bit Flash player seemed to be less stable to me as well. Additionally, it doesn't seem to work well with PulseAudio. But on RHEL 5, I don't need to care anymore, since I'm neither using 64 bit, nor using PulseAudio. ;P

    7. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have Ubuntu on two separate PC's and flash has worked fine since 7.x for me.

    8. Re:Nice by Cougar+Town · · Score: 1

      The 64-bit Flash Player also has hardware acceleration disabled. The 32-bit player uses OpenGL for acceleration (though sometimes you have to convince it that your video card actually can handle it with a simple config file).

      I have no issues in Ubuntu 10.04 with 32-bit Flash running in a 64-bit Firefox/Chrome (this is the default config and you only have to install the flashplugin-installer package and it "just works", at least on my system. ymmv of course). I'd rather have the hardware acceleration (smooth full screen video, yay!) than 64-bit (which has no real advantage for the Flash player).

    9. Re:Nice by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 1

      Aye, there's the rub. Even when Flash "works fine" it still screws you over. If you don't control the code, the code controls you.

      --
      Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    10. Re:Nice by arifwn · · Score: 1

      Compared to windows, linux version of flash consume much more cpu juice. just like what happen with flash in osx. having flash block installed is a must for linux user.

    11. Re:Nice by helix2301 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Flash has had so many issues on linux the infamous you tube with no sound if you Google that you have enough reading material for quite a while and the high resource intensive issues. Flash I think has gotten worse with every Ubuntu release I really don't think has gotten better at all.

      --
      http://www.thetechnologygeek.org
    12. Re:Nice by CarpetShark · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yes such a blessing Linux is! Years before iphone/ipad didn't have flash. We didn't have it first!

      This is probably more true than you'd think. Linux users were clamouring for Flash for years, as were Linux/PPC and Linux/AMD64 users. Linux and Linux/AMD64 Flash, at least, actually happened. So they probably all contributed to Flash's portability, paving the way for Flash on mobiles etc.

    13. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps if Linux got their act together and standardised basic things which have been perfect in other OS's for years, companies wouldn't run from Linux.

      It's 2010, package management STILL isn't standardised, either are kernel modules and QT/GTK have only recently started to integrate within each others environments.. Oh, and try running programs compiled on other Linux versions on Fedora, SELinux violations. Meanwhile, Ubuntu/Canonical are off coding yet another distributed version control system and creating new projects instead of working on integration.

      Whilst you are at it, expect shell scripts to hardcode interpreter path's in #! statements (and disallow environment variables) , so that future distro's can never rename /bin (YAY).

      QA in Linux is a nightmare, because each distro is so incredibly stubborn that they can't even work together on fundamentals. It's a surprise Xorg-X11 is still in use. Until the linux distro's foundations are stabilised though, I really doubt many companies will want to burn money by doubling the size of their QA dept to even support the most common distro's.

      Haha, imagine what kind of QA would be required to get Adobe Creative Suite working in Linux.

  2. Empathy by Tester · · Score: 3, Informative

    Empathy has already supported XMPP video chats for years! And has been compatible with Google non-standard variant almost since it was announced.

    1. Re:Empathy by robotito · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But now, you can read the Google ads while chatting... (which is essential for them)

    2. Re:Empathy by natehoy · · Score: 4, Informative

      So does Pidgin, and has done for at least a few months. I'm not sure what the author of the summary was on about, I've had Gmail video chats between a Windows box and my wife's Linux box several times, her using Pidgin and me using the video chat client in Firefox.

      Her eeePC has some microphone driver oddities we had to overcome in Linux (my one and only reason to drop to the command line in that install, turns out the eeePC identifies itself as having a stereo mic but only a mono is installed, and if signal comes in on both channels they cancel each other out, so you have to mute one of them), but the camera worked right out of the box in Linux Mint, and turning on video chat support in Pidgin was a matter of enabling the extension and using it, all in the Pidgin GUI.

      In any case, it's nice to see it coming straight to the browser chat client.

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
    3. Re:Empathy by camcorder · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They don't care whether you read their ads or not, they only care if you click on them.

    4. Re:Empathy by think_nix · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Unless your are behind a proxy server:

      https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=602824

    5. Re:Empathy by Locutus · · Score: 1

      but Empathy and Pidgin both did very poorly with device configuration and especially so for USB based mics. I'll see what Google does about this but since I've already setup a few others on Skype because of the device selection issues. It's going to be a tough sell to move them over to Google now they they are already configured and running Skype. With Skype, it just found the USB mic and webcam devices, lists them and easily uses them. I have manually configured a few machines for voice/vid in the past but the USB media device side was just too painful.

      LoB

      --
      "Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
    6. Re:Empathy by think_nix · · Score: 1

      "Connecting ..... In the meantime a word from our sponsor.."

    7. Re:Empathy by creepynut · · Score: 1

      Google already has the technology to suggest ads during chats ;)

      http://www.theonion.com/video/new-google-phone-service-whispers-targeted-ads-dir,17470/

    8. Re:Empathy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      The same with Nokia N900 since spring.

    9. Re:Empathy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is enough click fraud, they don't care about that either. Or at least less than you might think.

      Based on my own experience, roughly 30%-40% of all clicks were fraudulent and easily identifiable as such. Their crack team in the fraud department fixed something like 5%, and that's over and above their otherwise normal "fraud detection."

      The only thing that reduced the fraud was to NEVER allow Google to determine where the ads would be placed. Once you stop using the newbie recommended automatic mode, fraud almost completely disappears.

      Best I can tell, Google's ad business is based entirely on looking the other way while they bank millions in fraudulent clicks.

      For Google, "Fraud Detection", is Latin, which loosely translated means, "Eyes closed, looking the other way."

    10. Re:Empathy by elecmahm · · Score: 1

      I know, right? I remember being impressed at how Empathy supported video chat natively. This is about as late-to-the-partyy as that recent rash of posts about caffeine tolerance buildup.

    11. Re:Empathy by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      and Kopete. In fact are there any linux chat clients that doesn't already support this?

    12. Re:Empathy by spintriae · · Score: 1

      I just noticed the Eee PC microphone issue when I installed the Gmail video chat client yesterday. I didn't feel like looking for a solution right away, but lo and behold, here it is. If I had the points I'd mod you up, instead, I'll just says thanks.

    13. Re:Empathy by natehoy · · Score: 1

      There's a wiki out there that I contributed to some time ago - and coincidentally I got a notice that someone posted the solution in some detail to that page just today:

      http://www.linlap.com/wiki/asus+eee+pc+1005pe#comment_daacb79590433e3b0a2ffdf557f1c2ea

      When I solved it, you couldn't unlink the two channels in the default GUI, so I had to download a more detailed control package (forget what it is) and solve it that way. That was in Mint 8, though, and Mint 9 probably has the more detailed controls as default (I think I had to get the detailed controls from a backport, so they may be default now).

      The Linux Laptop Wiki is a great resource, regardless. It was where I found the brightness annoyances (and the easy workaround), so I figured I'd contribute my "boot to USB" tips there.

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
    14. Re:Empathy by shish · · Score: 1

      turns out the eeePC identifies itself as having a stereo mic but only a mono is installed, and if signal comes in on both channels they cancel each other out

      I'm pretty sure that there are actually two mics, but they're designed for background noise cancellation rather than stereo, and the linux drivers are doing it wrong (I have the same problem with my 1201n -- in linux, I can disable one channel to have the other channel and no noise cancellation which is very noisy; in windows, both channels are active, but it does noise cancellation properly, so the sound is crystal clear)

      --
      I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
    15. Re:Empathy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Meanwhile, I don't think Google has added video chat to the regular gtalk client... on windows. o_O

    16. Re:Empathy by rdnetto · · Score: 1

      You mind giving us a link to that extension? I couldn't see anything on the official plugins page, and if no one can find it then it might as well not exist...

      --
      Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
    17. Re:Empathy by natehoy · · Score: 1

      Sorry, wrong term. It's a Plugin, and they are located under Tools/Plugins on the Pidgin menu, the plugin you want is called "Voice/Video Settings".

      Once you set up your webcam and mic, set up the account as XMPP, with your Gmail username (the bit before the @ only) as the user and gmail.com as the domain, and I have mine set up to force SSL and the connect port is 5222.

      Hope this helps.

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  3. Screenshots show Chrome... by e065c8515d206cb0e190 · · Score: 1

    hopefully it'll work in Firefox too? I mean, Iceweasel?

    1. Re:Screenshots show Chrome... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      hopefully it'll work in Firefox too? I mean, Iceweasel?

      It work too. I tested it with firefox right now.

    2. Re:Screenshots show Chrome... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      It doesn't seem like it's working at this moment in Firefox (at least on my account).

      Voice and video chat: Gmail voice and video uses Flash for video rendering. Install Now

    3. Re:Screenshots show Chrome... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      seamonkey for me

    4. Re:Screenshots show Chrome... by bl8n8r · · Score: 1

      after converting the .deb to a .tgz using alien I noticed these in the tarball:

      ./usr/lib/iceweasel/plugins/libnpgoogletalk.so
      ./usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libnpgoogletalk.so
      ./usr/lib/firefox/plugins/libnpgoogletalk.so

      --
      boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
  4. May the source be with you by think_nix · · Score: 1

    While nice that this feature is coming to Linux , I really wish that they would have released a tarball, bunzip, or whatever so non Debian/Ubuntu users can also try it out.

    1. Re:May the source be with you by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My thoughts exactly. Why not GPL this code, and maybe then we could see it merged into other clients as well?

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    2. Re:May the source be with you by Asic+Eng · · Score: 1
      Can't you just do something like this:

      % mkdir ~/temp
      % dpkg -x somepackage.deb ~/temp/

      Then move stuff to wherever you need it?

    3. Re:May the source be with you by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 1

      If it is a compile binary, you might not have such luck. You may need to do a lot of work to get it to run, and you can forget trying to use something other than x86 (although that probably affects very few people these days).

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    4. Re:May the source be with you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google voice and video chat incorporates technologies from Global IP Solutions and Vidyo, Inc. which are covered under pending U.S. and foreign patent applications.

    5. Re:May the source be with you by Qzukk · · Score: 1

      If they're not on a debianlike, they don't have dpkg :P

      That said, .deb files are actually ar archives, they could extract it with ar x somepackage.deb and just about every distribution should have ar

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    6. Re:May the source be with you by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

      Because they don't have the license to?

    7. Re:May the source be with you by think_nix · · Score: 1

      thanks , I will try this .

    8. Re:May the source be with you by larry+bagina · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I'm a debian/alpha user and can't do jack shit with their packages.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    9. Re:May the source be with you by the_denman · · Score: 1

      Try using Alien, a program that converts between Redhat rpm, Debian deb, Stampede slp, Slackware tgz, and Solaris pkgs. It at least works some of the time but can be quite hit or miss.

    10. Re:May the source be with you by Asic+Eng · · Score: 1

      Well, IIRC dpkg is available on SuSE at least, I presume for applications like that. But if ar works, use ar. :-)

    11. Re:May the source be with you by bl8n8r · · Score: 1

      $ alien -t google-talkplugin_current_i386.deb
      Warning: alien is not running as root!
      Warning: Ownerships of files in the generated packages will probably be wrong.
      tar: Record size = 8 blocks
      Warning: Skipping conversion of scripts in package google-talkplugin: postinst postrm
      Warning: Use the --scripts parameter to include the scripts.
      google-talkplugin-1.4.1.0.tgz generated
      tar xvfz google-talkplugin-1.4.1.0.tgz

      --
      boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
    12. Re:May the source be with you by Steve+Max · · Score: 1

      # emerge -pv dpkg

      These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

      Calculating dependencies... done!
      [ebuild U ] app-arch/dpkg-1.15.6.1 [1.15.2] USE="bzip2 nls unicode zlib -dselect% -test (-selinux%)" LINGUAS="-de% -es% -fr% -hu% -ja% -pl% -ru% -sv%" 4,729 kB

      Total: 1 package (1 upgrade), Size of downloads: 4,729 kB

      Maybe you won't have dpkg in your default install, but it surely will be available. Just like rpm is available in every distro.

    13. Re:May the source be with you by BitZtream · · Score: 1

      Or BSD the code so it can be used in clients that matter. Or better still ... use the fucking standard XMPP video protocols rather than their own fucked up version so that every client that already supports proper XMPP video can work with it.

      I don't want to use some other shitty client like Pidgin because Google doesn't want to follow the standard for some retarded reason.

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    14. Re:May the source be with you by jthill · · Score: 1

      a .deb is just an ar archive. Poke around, it won't take all day to figure out what's going on in there.

      --
      As always, all IMO. Insert "I think" everywhere grammatically possible.
    15. Re:May the source be with you by lucian1900 · · Score: 1

      Google set the de-facto standard for video in XMPP with Jingle and made it open source. Every single XMPP client that supports video & audio can interoperate with GTalk (like Empathy).

  5. DIY by Ironchew · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, if you didn't mind screwing around with ffmpeg, ffserver, and VLC Media Player, you could have done audioconferencing and videoconferencing already. Be warned, it isn't for the people who stray away from compiling and documentation.

    1. Re:DIY by dragin33 · · Score: 2, Informative

      My wife, a non-Linux user sat down with our Ubuntu 10 laptop last weekend to video chat over Skype. It worked great for the most part! However, after having the video in full screen mode the application hung and, unable to get out of full screen mode, effectively the computer was unusable and had to be power buttoned. At least it wasn't a totally bad Linux experience for my wife but I wish the Linux desktops and (more specifically) the applications that run on it were more stable!

    2. Re:DIY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      CTRL+ALT+F1
      username
      password
      killall skype

    3. Re:DIY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Ctrl+Alt+F7 to get back

    4. Re:DIY by soloport · · Score: 1

      In Kubuntu:
      * Ctrl+Alt+Esc
      * Watch for skull/crossbones mouse cursor to appear
      * Click Left mouse button

    5. Re:DIY by Fri13 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ctrl+Alt+Esc and click the screen. Because the video was fullscreen, you could not miss it. This just would not work if the Xorg has crashed so the input devices does not work.

    6. Re:DIY by CarpetShark · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Be warned, it isn't for the people who stray away from compiling and documentation.

      I think you meant "shy away". Being an unfaithful dog has nothing to do with it... I mean... so I hear.

    7. Re:DIY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When you start using the word conferencing it comes with possibility of it being multi-point. That's area where Linux and open source applications are dead in water.

    8. Re:DIY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since skype + fullscreen works nicely on linux, it was probably a usb driver/graphic card driver problem, so i bet for a serious lock and the ctrl + alt + esc/F1 wouldnt have worked.
      Magic sys key on the other hand probably worked in order for a clean reboot:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key#.22Raising_Elephants.22_mnemonic_device

    9. Re:DIY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heh, i bet it was compiz fault

    10. Re:DIY by Ironchew · · Score: 1

      Being an unfaithful dog has nothing to do with it... I mean... so I hear.

      When you're responding to a user named TrisexualPuppy, it has everything to do with it.

    11. Re:DIY by Curtman · · Score: 1

      Why not just use Ekiga (formerly known as Gnomemeeting)? I've been using it for videoconferencing for years, and it's very stable.

  6. Announcement? by VincenzoRomano · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sadly enough, I didn't get any ofthe usual announcement email from Google.
    It's ridiculous that I have to read every day their blog in order to know the news about the services I'm using...

    --
    Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
    For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
    1. Re:Announcement? by yurtinus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes yes, how DARE they not spam you!

      --
      +1 Disagree
    2. Re:Announcement? by VincenzoRomano · · Score: 1

      They won't. They already own our souls.

      --
      Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
      For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
    3. Re:Announcement? by VincenzoRomano · · Score: 1

      They sent me the email last night! :-)
      But why on earth the plugin is not in the Google's .deb repository and I have to HTTP-download it?

      --
      Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
      For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
  7. Is it just me... by bogaboga · · Score: 0, Troll

    ...who thinks that Linux does not matter that much anymore? I am afraid I have that gut feeling. Maybe the upcoming Android devices will make Linux more relevant. Android on cell phones is doing quite well.

    1. Re:Is it just me... by VMaN · · Score: 1

      Why do you say that?

      There are very few things that are an issue anymore (gaming is limited tho).

    2. Re:Is it just me... by baka_toroi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, after 3 years without trying Linux I decided to give it a shot with Linux Mint. It's great! The installation process was better than in Mac OS X. Even error messages were clear to understand (My DVD drive wasn't reading properly the installation disc). The only problems are the ones we all know about: lack of *Microsoft* office (but that's not an issue for most of us), lack of proper Adobe Flash, shitty ATI drivers (luckily I have an Nvidia card) and so on.

      But the experience with the OS is surprisingly positive. I have a Windows XP partition because I will need to program in .NET soon, but other than that, I don't think I'll use Windows much.

    3. Re:Is it just me... by ViViDboarder · · Score: 1

      Google is also about to release ChromeOS which is Linux based for netbooks and laptops.

    4. Re:Is it just me... by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "anymore"? I think Linux matters more every year. We don't have so many "Year of the Linux Desktop" stories because we've finally managed to pound it into most people's heads that there will not be any such thing, and that in fact it is probably impossible for such a thing to ever happen again (short of a technological singularity) due to the importance of legacy systems and the complexity of a modern computing system. Linux continues to gain seats (and servers) so it continually becomes more relevant. And if we ever do get this alleged impending flood of ARM netbooks and tablets, you're going to see it become very important indeed. This is Microsoft's worst nightmare. It almost makes me want to go buy a shitty ARM netbook right now to prove that people want these devices and will take even inferior ones over Windows-based solutions. I am distinctly unhappy with the software experience on my LT3102u :(

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Is it just me... by tagno25 · · Score: 1

      But the experience with the OS is surprisingly positive. I have a Windows XP partition because I will need to program in .NET soon, but other than that, I don't think I'll use Windows much.

      Try using Mono.

    6. Re:Is it just me... by natehoy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No. It's not just you.

      There are plenty of people who think that Linux doesn't matter that much any more. And, for them (and you), assuming you are talking about Linux on the desktop, you're right. Unless you want to make it matter, it doesn't.

      Embedded devices like routers and cell phones and PVR/DVRs and the like are a whole separate discussion. Linux itself may matter to your lifestyle a little more than you think. But you don't need to worry about that any more than you have to worry about the brand of spark plugs in your car. It was part of the box you bought, that box would just have cost more if Linux wasn't available and the manufacturer had to license something else. Almost no one puts a sticker on their box that says "Linux Inside" any more than Ford puts "Delco Sparkplugs Inside" on their cars. It's part of what you bought, but not necessarily part of why you would want to choose that specific one over others.

      But Linux on the desktop, whether you feel it matters to you or not, does benefit you in myriad small ways. Apple and Microsoft see Linux as a threat, and even as a minor threat Linux still drives Apple and Microsoft to improve their products. In the end, we all win when there's some form of perceived threat to the market leader that they can't simply destroy by discounting their product enough or buying out the competition or suing them into oblivion.

      The threat the Linux community presents to Microsoft and Apple is that we are not not one person, it's not one organization, and they can't stop us. We are not one, we are legion. Microsoft (in particular) has to carefully consider the presence of Linux distros when setting pricing, adding features, fighting piracy, and attempting to position themselves as "worth the money" when compared to an operating system that is free for all to use and modify to suit their own tastes.

      Linux on the desktop may never even approach Apple MacOS in terms of popularity. It's certainly not going to knock Microsoft off its perch in the near future. Maybe never. We penguinheads are perfectly fine with that, in fact most of us don't really care. We just want software we can use on our own terms. Some might prefer it because it costs no money, some might prefer it because no one can ever take it from us.

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
    7. Re:Is it just me... by devent · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ... and that in fact it is probably impossible for such a thing to ever happen again (short of a technological singularity) due to the importance of legacy systems and the complexity of a modern computing system.

      Linux can to everything what a modern computer system should do. So can the *BSD and BeOS. That was already since at least 5 years. Legacy application can Linux run just fine thanks to Wine. Other systems can run legacy applications fine as well, thanks to virtualization. What you mean by "technological singularity" I have no idea. The point is, we don't see the "Year of the Linux Desktop" or any other system because of the high entry bar in this marketplace. You have to convince first all the OEMs to support any other system besides Windows, and because of the deals with Microsoft it's mostly impossible. Why there was so much press about the Dell site, that state that Linux is more secure then Windows? Why is Dell offering only lower spec laptops with Linux but not for the other laptops as well?

      Why is that anywhere else Linux is the market dominant system? Like in the Super Computers, the servers, movies special effects, the embedded devices like NAS, routers, now in TVs and now soon in the smart phone market. The "technological singularity" is happening in that places quite for some time now with Linux, but not in the desktop market. Coincidence?

      --
      http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
    8. Re:Is it just me... by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      And if we ever do get this alleged impending flood of ARM netbooks and tablets, you're going to see it become very important indeed.

      That's a fantasy. It was a fantasy 3 years ago, it's a fantasy now. It's simply not. going. to. happen.

      This is Microsoft's worst nightmare.

      Microsoft already has OSes that run fine on ARM. They already have versions of Office that run on ARM. So... no it's not.

      --
      Comment of the year
    9. Re:Is it just me... by Abcd1234 · · Score: 1

      If he needs to program on Windows, he should do it on Windows.

      That said, a VM would work perfectly fine. Or even better, a completely separate dev machine (VS works a heck of a lot better when you dedicate a machine to it).

    10. Re:Is it just me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is just you.

      Relevance is subjective. To an end-user the only thing that is relevant is the experience. If you hand a non-tech person a device running Android, iOS, Linux, or any other platform they will only care about what they can do. Will it get email? Can they play Farmville?
      They don't care if it is powered by Linux, Microsoft, or coded by magic pixies that fart rainbows.

      Linux will gain importance with chipset manufactuers. Not because of user demand, but because the chipset makers will need to have Linux support to be able to sell chips to the company that wants to make the next ipad clone.

    11. Re:Is it just me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Technological singularity.

      The singularity reference was a joke, I think. Basically, if there are a ton of super-intelligent AIs around, people will have other things to worry about than what OSes they used to run before some bored super-intelligent AI finally wrote an OS that doesn't suck.

    12. Re:Is it just me... by sznupi · · Score: 1

      At the least - look at all those governmental, educational & generally public institution and business adoptions. And it picks up steam over time, should diffuse. At some point, the realization that x86 is not really required, that many ARM chips are good enough, should get through.

      Should help with how OLPC XO-1 will have an ARM version soon (XO-1.75, IIRC); it was also the trigger of netbooks after all. Yes, MS desparately tried and succeeded in regaining that segment (derailing it a bit in the process) - this might not work so well with machines where it would be harder to justify price increases.

      And remember, there are only a bit over 1 billion PCs in the world. Mobile phone uptake, at close to 5 billion now, probably hints at what is still possible...

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    13. Re:Is it just me... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Microsoft already has OSes that run fine on ARM. They already have versions of Office that run on ARM. So... no it's not.

      Office isn't the problem, if they ported a real windows to ARM then a real Office would run on it. The primary problem that Microsoft faces in the ARM space is that Windows CE is a total fucking lemon in every way, while Windows NT is too heavy for a small portable device. Windows 9x was okay for a primarily single-task machine like an Xbox; Windows NT was fine for a heavy lifter like an Xbox 360, which really is an amazing amount of machine. But I've used various devices with Windows CE and all of them have been lemons. Even the GPS devices will display Microsoft-related failure; anyone who's used a WinCE PDA or phone (I own both and use neither... but occasionally I check into Android or at least Angstrom on one or the other) will recognize the symptoms immediately... and frequently.

      In addition, the version of Office that runs on WinCE is a limited and laggy pile of bloatware. I have a 400MHz arm5vte PDA and a 600MHz arm9tdmi GPS, I have office on both of them, it's agonizingly slow. Am I the only one that remembers Word 5.1 on an SE or so as being better than this? As it so happens I have an SE with a 16MHz Radius accelerator+mono display card with Word 5.1 on it (makes a fine doorstop) and it IS better.

      Microsoft has nothing credible to run on an ARM netbook.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    14. Re:Is it just me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd wager that the only thing stopping Linux from becoming dominant in the home desktop is...gaming.

  8. The reason by donnythebowler · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is great and all, but it's obviously just the byproduct of Google preparing ChromeOS. Linux-based, browser-only.

    1. Re:The reason by Locutus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      while it would be great to have OS native versions of everything, a fully functional and usable browser solution is not a problem. If anything, it should still result in move vendors digging in and supporting GNU/Linux and that should result in more OS native options. If the driver model for ChromeOS is very different from the standard drivers then it might not carry over as much as we'd like. But still, getting vendors to support any GNU/Linux platform is better than what most do now by not supporting it.

      LoB

      --
      "Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
    2. Re:The reason by donnythebowler · · Score: 1

      Absolutely. I could not agree more. I just realized my original comment may have come across more negative than intended.

  9. More dammit! by MonsterTrimble · · Score: 1

    Now if only Pidgin could provide solid video chat functionality in their client..."

    Forget (just) video chat! How about file & photo sharing (Yahoo I'm looking at you!), better social media integration and a stock appearance that wasn't fugly?

    Frankly, if Kopete wasn't such a POS in *buntu-land for the past year, I would have ditched Pidgin a long time ago.

    --
    I call it 'The Aristocrats'
  10. No, it's not just you by DogDude · · Score: 1

    Linux on the desktop hasn't really ever made significant enough inroads to matter all that much. With OSX whetting the whistle of most people who want *nix on the desktop, I doubt that Linux on the desktop will ever be anything more than what it is now: a tiny, marginalized platform only used by uber-geeks. It seems to me that companies are releasing Linux versions of software are releasing later and later, if ever.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
    1. Re:No, it's not just you by IANAAC · · Score: 1

      With OSX whetting the whistle of most people who want *nix on the desktop

      I imagine you don't have many non-developer friends using Macs then. Unix has nothing at all to do with most users' Mac desktops in their minds.

    2. Re:No, it's not just you by sznupi · · Score: 1

      So, all those governments, educational & generally public institutions and businesses don't matter all that much? They are all uber-geeks, tiny and marginalized?

      People don't see how, slowly but surely, the adoption spreads. And should diffuse into other "market segments."

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
  11. Pidgin by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 3, Informative

    ``Now if only Pidgin could provide solid video chat functionality in their client...''

    I honestly think the Pidgin team isn't that interested in such features. Video chat was coded for it years ago (back when it was still called Gaim), but that code was never adopted. I guess it just isn't a very big deal, or else I expect people would have switched to software that does do video chat, like the gaim-vv fork, Kopete, or AMSN. I don't see that happening, though. And Skype got by without video support for years, too. The world at large doesn't really seem to care about video chat.

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    1. Re:Pidgin by The+Mighty+Buzzard · · Score: 1

      Seriously, who wants to have to put clothes on every time some random family member, friend, or business associate feels the need to intrude on your time?

      --
      Violence is like duct tape. If it doesn't solve the problem, you didn't use enough.
    2. Re:Pidgin by otis+wildflower · · Score: 1

      A FaceTime plugin for Pidgin/Adium would be very cool.

    3. Re:Pidgin by marsu_k · · Score: 1

      You know what would be even cooler? If Apple were to support the existing standard for UMTS video calls via 3G. Not bloody likely though.

    4. Re:Pidgin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      um... Pidgin video chat works for me. I don't know what people are talking about.

  12. ok knuckleheads by Stumbles · · Score: 2, Insightful

    please provide a tarball.

    --
    My karma is not a Chameleon.
    1. Re:ok knuckleheads by Fri13 · · Score: 1

      And if not a tarball, at least a LSB compatible binary!

      I, and any of my friends or schoolmates do not use Ubuntu. We use OpenSUSE, Mandriva and some has the Fedora. Deb package is not enough at all and it actually is insult towards Linux users! Maybe Ubuntu fans does not care it, but when they actually would care about the whole F/OSS community instead only their own?

      Thats why we do have LSB (http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/lsb) so we can all choose the distribution what to use, instead choosing a specific RPM or DPKG using distribution.

      The tarball would be best because that gives the distributors a change to do their job, distribute the software for the users!

    2. Re:ok knuckleheads by orzetto · · Score: 2, Informative

      $ alien --to-tgz google-talkplugin_current_amd64.deb

      --
      Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
  13. Great, but how about the client? by phorm · · Score: 1

    It would also be a "nice to have" if google could see to porting some version of their talk client so that I don't have to use my web-browser for the "official" plugin, that would be nice (though I've heard that empathy can do VV, I haven't had an opportunity to test that yet).

    Oh, and while they're busy porting... how about a voice+video version for the Android, or at least voice.

    1. Re:Great, but how about the client? by natehoy · · Score: 1

      Pidgin does Google Voice (including video) just fine. Others have reported that Empathy is also good at it.

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  14. to configure the cam, mic, and sound login and by Locutus · · Score: 2, Informative

    login to gmail and go to your "settings", select "chat" from the tabs of things to change and you'll see the "Voice and video chat" section where it'll list the three devices( camera, microphone, speakers ) and the drop down lists should show what devices your system has available. To my surprise, it does list the USB camera and microphone but I have not tested this yet.

    Looks pretty good so far.

    LoB

    --
    "Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
  15. Re:to configure the cam, mic, and sound (UPDATE) by Locutus · · Score: 1

    there is a "Verify your settings" link in that "Voice and video chat" section and clicking that link expands to show you a video window of what your camera is seeing, a mic level meter and a sound/speaker meter. The mic meter should move when you tap the mic or talk and there's a link to send a ring sound to your speakers to test that.

    on my system, all 3 test passed. Well done Google but too bad none of the setup details were mentioned on the digitizor.com page.

    LoB

    --
    "Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
  16. .deb files are easy enough to install anywhere. by nedwidek · · Score: 1

    Easy enough to install .deb files even without alien.

    Load the deb file into file-roller. Extract the data.tgz and control.tgz files. Move the files in the data.tgz file to their right places and run the postinst script from the control.tgz file.

    Hmm, seems Google installs a daily cron job to check to see if there is an update for their plugin. Nice of them to do, but I'm not sure I'd want software updates until I decide to do them.

    --
    Post anonymously - For when your opinion embarrasses even you!
  17. Almost got it working w/ RPM (64bit) by EkriirkE · · Score: 1

    using the alien utility
    alien -r google-talkplugin_current_amd64.deb
    creates google-talkplugin-1.4.1.0-2.x86_64.rpm

    rpm -i google-talkplugin-1.4.1.0-2.x86_64.rpm
    a few dependency issues :
        libcrypto.so.0.9.8 is needed by google-talkplugin-1.4.1.0-2.x86_64
        libcrypto.so.0.9.8(OPENSSL_0.9.8) is needed by google-talkplugin-1.4.1.0-2.x86_64
        libssl.so.0.9.8 is needed by google-talkplugin-1.4.1.0-2.x86_64
        libssl.so.0.9.8(OPENSSL_0.9.8) is needed by google-talkplugin-1.4.1.0-2.x86_64

    I know these are installed, both 64 and 686 versions, so i throw a --nodeps in and manually softlink the files in my lib/lib64 to the current versions
    Fired up FF and I see no new extensions. Hmm
    I checked the plugins folders and see the google talks files got linked to the 32bit path not the 64bit libs path
        ls -l /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/
        libnpgoogletalk64.so -> /opt/google/talkplugin/libnpgoogletalk64.so
        libnpgtpo3dautoplugin.so -> /opt/google/talkplugin/libnpgtpo3dautoplugin.so
    So I link these in my 64 plugin path (/usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/). Fired up FF again and now I have new plugins! no errors about depends in the terminal...
    Alas, gmail does not recognize they are there :(

    --
    from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
  18. Great, now how about for Android? by PinchDuck · · Score: 1

    I think it's silly that one of Google's communication products doesn't work on their communication OS. It's especially raw now that Fring and Skype are splitsville.

  19. Where is file transfer and remote desktop control? by Amendt · · Score: 1

    In the old days (yesterday) when I was using Empathy's Jabber/XMPP to do remote desktop control and file transfer, this was built in. Now how can I help gram-ma out?

  20. RPM is already available, if you use alien by Idou · · Score: 1

    Just type: alien --to-rpm google-talkplugin_current_i386.deb

    At least, this worked fine for Mandriva 2010.0 on a Dell mini 9.

    --
    Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
  21. Beard? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can't grow a beard you insensitive clod!

  22. Too late. by i621148 · · Score: 1

    Not being able to video chat on my linux box is what finally pushed me over the edge and I bought a Mac Pro workstation.