Ask Slashdot: Can Linux do Video Conferencing?

Happy New Year! Ed Schlunder wrote in with 1999's first Ask Slashdot. He asks: "Our school district is playing with the idea of video conferencing and I'm wondering if this can be done on Linux. My home computer has a bttv card and a full duplex sound card. This should be the necessary hardware for doing video conferencing. On the software side, Linux supports IP Multicast and IGMP, so the kernel seems to be up to the task. But what about the actual video compression and distribution system? So far, everything I've looked at seems about 1-2 years old and no longer maintained (vic, nv, etc). Is there a cross platform video conferencing application out there for Linux that is actively maintained?" The school is currently looking into Microsoft NetMeeting, but Ed worries (and rightly so) that Microsoft might be positioning itself to dominate in this market, allowing them to determine the standards later on. What do you all say? Remember, that more of Ask Slashdot can be found here ! 1998 was a good first year, and I'm hoping that we can help more folks with their nagging questions in 1999!