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Ask Slashdot: FOSS, Multiplatform Skype Replacement for PC-to-PC Video Chat?

Posted by timothy on from the really-long-cardboard-tube dept.

obarthelemy writes "Skype having just been borged, now may be a good time to hedge our bets and look for a replacement. I'm *not* looking for something that interfaces with POTS, but just a simple PC-to-PC video chat tool that is very easy to configure and use, reliable, multiplatform (my family has Windows, Linux, MacOS; iOS and Android would be nice extras), and has good video/voice quality. We're almost only skyping with each other. What would you recommend?"

4 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. Skype by Charcharodon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    uh....skype maybe. Just because MS got a hold of it means its down the tubes just yet.

    1. Re:Skype by Spicerun · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Obviously you haven't had the joy of using something after MS took it over. I've seen a few programs go down the tubes after MS bought the company. Sure, they didn't go down the tubes immediately, but they did die a long slow painful death. And the customers who stuck with those acquired programs got screwed ultimately.

  2. Oh noes, Microsoft! End of world! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Come on, seriously? Skype was a non-open source program before, which met all your needs, and did a great job. Microsoft is likely going to invest heavily in it, and integrate it into Windows 8, XBox360, and a lot of other things, making it more useful to you as more people will be using it.

    Microsoft is no angel, but they aren't the devil either.

  3. There is nothing else by atomicbutterfly · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Skype outpaces all other alternatives by far, particularly with regards to satisfying the "very easy to configure and use, reliable, multiplatform and has good video/voice quality" requirements. There's a reason so many people use it, and there's a reason Linux users still installed Skype when they were thrown scraps in terms of support and updates.

    Keep using Skype until such time that it NO LONGER WORKS (which I suspect will be for a very long time). Just because Microsoft owns it now doesn't mean it's dead. If it finally falls over in something like Linux, then you can move onto something such as Ekiga or whatever else has been developed, but there's simply nothing else in the consumer world that compares.

    Heh... "Skype having just been borged". You could at least explain how Skype no longer works for you instead of letting emotions cloud logic.