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View Full Version : Let's help get Skype for Linux up to speed!



saracen
August 10th, 2006, 09:19 PM
Skype is looking to hire some more people for the Linux team. If anyone is interested or wants to help out in some way, get in there! (http://digg.com/linux_unix/Skype_putting_more_resources_into_Linux) Let's get this app up to a reasonable level for Linux because as it stands, it's pretty dismal...

Michael_aust
August 10th, 2006, 11:51 PM
we should eb encouraging people to use wengo phone instea dof skype.

Wengo phone has all of the features of the Windows version of skype, and this is on all platforms. Linux/Windows/OSX all have the exact same clien. Same features and these include voice/video, pc-pc, pc-landline, landline-pc (i think), answer machine.

It also has a grast deal on afree calls to lanlines depepending on the countyr. I think you can get calls to something like 15 of its star countries for free.

What more is the application is Free/OSS. It doesnt have any of the problems skype has (it uses alsa instead of OSS, what were the sykpe team thinking honestly with that one).

Its as smple to use as skype. Whst more the wengophon 2.0 beta now supports other networks msn/yahoo.aim etc (i think it is only for sending text, dont think file transfer is available).

az
August 11th, 2006, 12:10 AM
we should eb encouraging people to use wengo phone instea dof skype.

Wengo phone has all of the features of the Windows version of skype, and this is on all platforms. Linux/Windows/OSX all have the exact same clien. Same features and these include voice/video, pc-pc, pc-landline, landline-pc (i think), answer machine.

It also has a grast deal on afree calls to lanlines depepending on the countyr. I think you can get calls to something like 15 of its star countries for free.

What more is the application is Free/OSS. It doesnt have any of the problems skype has (it uses alsa instead of OSS, what were the sykpe team thinking honestly with that one).

Its as smple to use as skype. Whst more the wengophon 2.0 beta now supports other networks msn/yahoo.aim etc (i think it is only for sending text, dont think file transfer is available).

I agree. Skype is proprietary and I will not use it because of that. Why use skype when there are free-libre software alternatives?

Carrots171
August 11th, 2006, 01:48 AM
I use Skype because many of my friends and family use Skype. I'm glad that they are trying to get their Linux version up to speed. This is also a sign that Linux is becoming more popular and that Skype is taking the Linux audience more seriously now.

saracen
August 11th, 2006, 08:37 AM
Skype voice quality (PC to PC) is still vastly superior to the other alternatives I've tried. I'll admit that I haven't tried wengophone, but I have tried gizmo and the quality was quite bad. It was reminiscent of MSN Messenger a couple of years back. There was lag, and the sound was muffled.

Skype is free software. It's not open source, but it is free. At least I haven't paid them a dime... plus it's only a matter of time till the Chinese crack their protocol, or wait a minute, they already have (http://www.technewsworld.com/story/51835.html)

DoctorMO
August 11th, 2006, 09:25 AM
saracen money is a social tool, you know what is more valuable than money? people.

You've given them yourself and thats all they really want, critical mass will make them money.

At least when open source has critical mass there isn't a chance that they turn arround and start charging you, or prevent you from moving suppliers or all the other nasty things that companies like doing, like selling your information, preferences and call times/places ect.

I give myself to wangophone even though no one I know uses it, if they want to talk to me, they can damn well install it and join me.

Terracotta
August 11th, 2006, 09:38 AM
saracen money is a social tool, you know what is more valuable than money? people.

You've given them yourself and thats all they really want, critical mass will make them money.

At least when open source has critical mass there isn't a chance that they turn arround and start charging you, or prevent you from moving suppliers or all the other nasty things that companies like doing, like selling your information, preferences and call times/places ect.

I give myself to wangophone even though no one I know uses it, if they want to talk to me, they can damn well install it and join me.

I agree with that. Skype may be good voice quality and the may be the first. But wengo does a pretty nice job, and it can fully replace gaim, because it uses gaim. I hope kopete gets a wengo function.

hesee
August 11th, 2006, 10:24 AM
There's Ekiga installed as default in Ubuntu. Is it compatible with wengophone?

Terracotta
August 11th, 2006, 10:32 AM
There's Ekiga installed as default in Ubuntu. Is it compatible with wengophone?

I don't think so yet, but perhaps in the future it should be possible, it's server based so all they need to do is to create a server that can link to other networks. For example skyp, ekiga and wengo could link in the future perhaps. I don't see a reason why not. Just like the jabber protocol allows to link to MSN and Yahoo and AOL and...

I think they installed ekiga because it's gtk based while wengo is QT-based.

hesee
August 11th, 2006, 10:41 AM
I see. And open standards makes this kind of merging easier, right? That's why skype as proprietary format is bad?

Terracotta
August 11th, 2006, 10:46 AM
I see. And open standards makes this kind of merging easier, right? That's why skype as proprietary format is bad?

Teal'c Voice: "Indeed"

There's nothing wrong with closed source programs if you ask me, however there is something wrong with closed standards and protocols.

jason.b.c
August 11th, 2006, 11:03 AM
So what do you use for the actual phone..???

A regular phone.?

Maybe construct one of these things..DIY Chat-Cord. (http://www.grynx.com/index.php/projects/build-your-own-chat-cord/3/)

Pictures and Schematics.. (http://www.vital.pri.ee/PSTN/)

saracen
August 11th, 2006, 11:43 AM
Look first of all Skype is free. If when i use it eBay makes money... so what. We pay for everything in life, why should good software be any different? Again, Skype is free and they have no plans to start charging in the future. If they do, then I and I'm sure millions of others will opt for something else.

I have no qualms paying for good software. I have qualms paying for Microsoft Windows because first of all, I don't think it's the best out there and it is plagued with security and other issues. And secondly because it costs $500 or whatever. If windows were $20 and there wasn't anything better out there, i'd consider paying for it. But at $500 - no way.

What is the argument for all software being totally free when everything else in life costs money? I think open source is incredible, don't get me wrong. I also believe that open-sourcing the code makes it more secure and stable in the long run. However there are people who create software, release the source, and still sell their software (pre-packaged) for a reasonable fee. I don't see the problem in that.

After all, something's gotta pay for the beer...

muep
August 11th, 2006, 12:00 PM
The problem isn't that the Skype client software is proprietary, but that the protocol they use is. I can't use other than proprietary clients for it, so I refuse to use it at all. I don't want to get dependant on something that might be taken away later, like many first freeware, later shareware/fully commercial software do.

az
August 11th, 2006, 12:59 PM
The problem isn't that the Skype client software is proprietary, but that the protocol they use is.

It's both actually.

My computer is nothing without the software it runs - I have no need for a humming box that just sits there. I have a right to be able to know what my computer is doing. I will not have my computer be a black box that does tasks for someone else behind my back.

I don't care if it's given away for free - unless the software is not somone else's property, I will not give away my rights and freedoms and run it.

It's also impractical in the same way as buying a car with the hood welded shut which can exclusively be serviced by a certain company's mechanics. That would just be dumb.

az
August 11th, 2006, 01:06 PM
Look first of all Skype is free. If when i use it eBay makes money... so what. We pay for everything in life, why should good software be any different?

Good question.

Because computers are pervasive. Societies and governments are relying more and more on them to interface with citizens. The more you look at it, the more you realise that you have a right to software freedom - to chose to be able to know what your computer is doing with your data.

There are already a number of tasks that I must do (for example, applying for government-subsidised paternal leave) that *require* that I use a Microsoft OS - if not in my home but from a government office. It's scary to think that one american company can almost effortlessly spy on so much.

There are also a lot of practical reasons to use free-libre open source software - most have been mentioned here.

saracen
August 11th, 2006, 03:18 PM
So is wengophone comparable to skype in terms of voice quality? Like I said I tried gizmo and found that the sound wasn't nearly as good - there was a delay and the sound was muffled. What do people think of wengophone?

Michael_aust
August 11th, 2006, 08:20 PM
I believe that Wengophone is just as good a voice quality as Skype. Whats more its client does not suck like Skype and the deals you can get like the free calls to loads of countries (landlines).

My experiances with wengop[hone have been good, the only eceptions is you may have to fiddle with your firewall settings a little.

Virogenesis
August 11th, 2006, 08:46 PM
1. why would you want to create a monopoly, remember how Microsoft abuses its position would you want skype to do that?
2. why support skype, who knows down the line they might pull the plug on skype for linux and then because no client exists and many are using skype.
Another protocall to reverse engineer.....fantastic idea...

jason.b.c
August 11th, 2006, 11:17 PM
Why can't i get wengophone installed..???

Suggestions.?


jason@Hp-Vectra-VL:~$ sudo dpkg -i /home/jason/Desktop/wengophone-0.958m-1.i386. deb
Password:
(Reading database ... 58639 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking wengophone (from .../wengophone-0.958m-1.i386.deb) ...
dpkg-deb (subprocess): short read in buffer_copy (failed to write to pipe in cop y)
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste returned error exit status 2
dpkg: error processing /home/jason/Desktop/wengophone-0.958m-1.i386.deb (--insta ll):
short read in buffer_copy (backend dpkg-deb during `./usr/lib/wengophone/lang/w engo_es.qm')
Errors were encountered while processing:
/home/jason/Desktop/wengophone-0.958m-1.i386.deb
jason@Hp-Vectra-VL:~$
](*,)

Terracotta
August 11th, 2006, 11:46 PM
Why can't i get wengophone installed..???

Suggestions.?

](*,)

How about:



sudo aptitude install wengophone

:mrgreen:

Always check Adept or synaptic first when you want to install a new program it might be in there somewhere :-D .


Edit: oh sorry man, you use breezy, don't know if it's in there. better check first. Good luck with it.

jason.b.c
August 12th, 2006, 12:54 AM
How about:



sudo aptitude install wengophone

:mrgreen:

Always check Adept or synaptic first when you want to install a new program it might be in there somewhere :-D .


Edit: oh sorry man, you use breezy, don't know if it's in there. better check first. Good luck with it.

Nah i downloaded it manually.! , It's sitting on my desktop as we speak..

I thought i was supposed to use the dpkg -i command to install a .deb .,..?

atenlaugh
August 26th, 2006, 09:31 PM
While I agree that it's much better to choose free software whenever possible, I couldn't get Wengo to make any calls, or for that matter do anything useful. Their website is sprawling and generally unhelpful, and I can see people getting very frustrated with it (as I have).

Terracotta
August 26th, 2006, 11:03 PM
Nah i downloaded it manually.! , It's sitting on my desktop as we speak..

I thought i was supposed to use the dpkg -i command to install a .deb .,..?
Normally yes, but you can also install it by right-clicking on it with your mouse and the small pop up will allow you to install it with adept or something else for gnome, but graphical.

awakatanka
August 26th, 2006, 11:22 PM
Wengo sucks atm. I have putted 10 euro on it because of the free calls to star lands. The free 2 euro's was good quality but the 10 euro's was nothing then poor quality and troubles. There forum is fast with replying but The never refunded my money and the problem was never solved for me. Lots have same problem if you read the forum.

Skype never had problems and quality was better. I rather pay for a app if it works good then Lose money on calling with a opensource app that is crap with calling to landlines.

angkor
August 26th, 2006, 11:43 PM
I'm happy skype is (finally) stepping up their linux support. They have been lacking a lot the last two years, must be because ebay bought them.

Skype sound quality on linux is still quite terrible when I compare it to the open SIP protocol. I have a SIP-account with my ISP and use Ekiga Softphone to call to land lines and the sound quality is way better then skype's.

Ekiga is not perfect yet but I definately prefer it (and SIP) over skype atm.

DrMilo
August 27th, 2006, 12:33 AM
Skype gives me free calling. I'll be using it untill that doesn't apply.

Buffalo Soldier
August 27th, 2006, 12:50 AM
A few of the reasons not to use Skype:

http://fossvoip.blogspot.com/2005/12/why-thou-shall-not-use-skype.html

http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/357

cvmostert
April 28th, 2007, 09:35 AM
we should eb encouraging people to use wengo phone instea dof skype.

Wengo phone has all of the features of the Windows version of skype, and this is on all platforms. Linux/Windows/OSX all have the exact same clien. Same features and these include voice/video, pc-pc, pc-landline, landline-pc (i think), answer machine.

It also has a grast deal on afree calls to lanlines depepending on the countyr. I think you can get calls to something like 15 of its star countries for free.

What more is the application is Free/OSS. It doesnt have any of the problems skype has (it uses alsa instead of OSS, what were the sykpe team thinking honestly with that one).

Its as smple to use as skype. Whst more the wengophon 2.0 beta now supports other networks msn/yahoo.aim etc (i think it is only for sending text, dont think file transfer is available).

might be true, but wengophone still wants to be the only one using the audio device... skype can use it while playing music or having youtube open...

why can openwengo and ekiga not use the same audio method (alsa) which one is it again that can multitask?

cvmostert
April 28th, 2007, 09:36 AM
I'm happy skype is (finally) stepping up their linux support. They have been lacking a lot the last two years, must be because ebay bought them.

Skype sound quality on linux is still quite terrible when I compare it to the open SIP protocol. I have a SIP-account with my ISP and use Ekiga Softphone to call to land lines and the sound quality is way better then skype's.

Ekiga is not perfect yet but I definately prefer it (and SIP) over skype atm.

with sound quality, i have exactly the opposite experience than you... ekiga has bad sound and skype good... so it looks like it differs.

honda
May 3rd, 2007, 10:01 AM
Skype just 'released' out an alpha of the 1.4 release. It's a little tricky to find (go to the forums, technology previews.., skype 1.4 alpha.. or directly from here:
https://developer.skype.com/LinuxSkype

Works for me (no freezing after long idle like before) but my usb audio sounds a bit like "snap crackle and pop" :-(

PartisanEntity
May 3rd, 2007, 10:23 AM
we should eb encouraging people to use wengo phone instea dof skype.

You can't always force/convince your friends and relatives to use open source software just because you don't want to use proprietary applications like Skype.

Skype is very widespread and all my friends and relatives use it, it would be impossible for me to convince them to switch to Wengo Phone since their friends and relatives also all use Skype.

So if some people are willing to help improve Skype for Linux I say Thank You.

If you have the luxury of having all your friends and relatives and their friends and relatives on open source software only I say good for you, I envy you.

DoctorMO
May 3rd, 2007, 10:39 AM
WARNING: Failure to remember all the problems the IT industry has faced with proprietory formats and the amount of work that has been required in order to retroactively fix the problems will lead to problems again.

The Skype proprietory V/VOIP format is bad for us, bad for friends and bad your relatives in the end.

cvmostert
May 11th, 2007, 09:32 AM
Skype voice quality (PC to PC) is still vastly superior to the other alternatives I've tried. I'll admit that I haven't tried wengophone, but I have tried gizmo and the quality was quite bad. It was reminiscent of MSN Messenger a couple of years back. There was lag, and the sound was muffled.

Skype is free software. It's not open source, but it is free. At least I haven't paid them a dime... plus it's only a matter of time till the Chinese crack their protocol, or wait a minute, they already have (http://www.technewsworld.com/story/51835.html)

I use skype and wengophone and the voice quality of wengophone is just like skype, both real good.. the only thing is that wengophone has video support in Linux, and Skype not yet... either everyone using windows should go to wengophone (not likely) or Skype has to start supporting Video (hopefully soon).

cvmostert
May 11th, 2007, 09:36 AM
Wengo sucks atm. I have putted 10 euro on it because of the free calls to star lands. The free 2 euro's was good quality but the 10 euro's was nothing then poor quality and troubles. There forum is fast with replying but The never refunded my money and the problem was never solved for me. Lots have same problem if you read the forum.

Skype never had problems and quality was better. I rather pay for a app if it works good then Lose money on calling with a opensource app that is crap with calling to landlines.

I am sorry that it turned out bad for you, but I also use wengophone and I put on 10EUR and it works just the same. No problem aside from not working while using the soundcard already.

pingvin
May 11th, 2007, 09:55 AM
I don't mean to sound smug, but I've never had a problem with using the soundcard for other tasks and Wengo at the same time, in fact I've even used it to play people music I've downloaded recently over Wengo. I haven't tried the version in the repos, but the latest version from the website does the trick for me. True the video quality doesn't seem too great, but the sound quality is excellent.
Mike

Lucifiel
May 11th, 2007, 10:05 AM
Just curious: does Wengo support Skype Ids?

I know that propriety and close-sourced ! = good but I doubt I can get all the people on my project to switch.

cendant
May 12th, 2007, 12:11 PM
The Skype proprietory V/VOIP format is bad for us, bad for friends and bad your relatives in the end.

Perhaps, but Skype is good for me because I can talk to my family and friends, it is good for my relatives because they use Windows and still need to communicate with me, it is good to have a choice.

Whatever you say, Skype's sound quality is far superior to Wengo or Ekiga.

Besides, you digressed. The idea of this thread is NOT to compare Skype or discuss its bad qualities. It is to invite Linux developers to make Skype better.

saracen
May 12th, 2007, 05:59 PM
can someone make debs of the 1.4 alpha release? Any screenshots?

dixon
May 14th, 2007, 12:34 PM
can someone make debs of the 1.4 alpha release? Any screenshots?
For what do u need the deb? U just download the archive (http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-alpha-static), unpack it and run skype - e.g. hitting enter in mc :) Skype is not an opensource software, so there's no compilation etc......

Jhongy
May 14th, 2007, 01:06 PM
I went to the trouble of getting my family, friends to try out Wengophone on their Windows boxes.

It wa a disaster -- it worked fine on their boxes, but not on my Ubuntu box.... Didn't pick up microphone sound, despite repeated fiddling around.. and I couldn't even hear the caller. The "test call" is no good, as it doesn't offer audible clues as to when it is going to start playing back the recording. To top it off, the video quality was really awful and the app kept on crashing.

Result: My contacts think I'm nuts for not using Skype on Windows.

I have high hopes for Wengophone, but it isn't remotely there yet. Skype - with its flaws, and without video, is currently a much more useful app.

awakatanka
May 14th, 2007, 02:18 PM
I am sorry that it turned out bad for you, but I also use wengophone and I put on 10EUR and it works just the same. No problem aside from not working while using the soundcard already.
At the end i have got a refund, and still try it sometimes, the app is getting better. But the major problems is that more then 7 mil users are on skype and i can't talk to them without skype. Converting is also very difficult because people use what most will use.

Plus lots of gadgets for skype, like a wireless phone etc.