Voip replacement and alternatives for Skype

[VanillaMozilla]

So, e.g. for international phone calls from Portugal, would Jitsi be at least equal to Skype as far as audio quality and simplicity of use go?

I think any of them would. Which program probably doesn't make a lot of difference as long as they work. The sound quality is usually good telephone quality as long as there is a good Internet connection.

Make sure you adjust the microphone volume, try to avoid a microphone in front of a speaker, and you'll be fine.

Some programs have had problems, such as connection problems, in the past. They rely on an external server to make connections, and some of the servers were (are?) not the best. You can easily test this with an Echo from the server. If you have a problem, it's easy to change service or program or both. The only part you might pay for (you would be risking a whole $10) is a VOIP-to-telephone account, and people have had very good service (and very cheap!) from either DiamondCard or Google. SIP is the way to go. Just go for it.

[MZ250Supa5]

Trying Ekiga... but having HUGE problems, but I'm suspecting that I'm also having the usual problems with the still quite lousy implementation of pulse audio in Ubuntu as I'm having microphone problems with Skype too - I want to ditch Skype after reading about the rather dubious ethical issues and the fact that it's close source - never good in my book, and just yet another part of the creeping corporatisation of our societies. The Ekiga documentation is bad, really bad, and obviously written by geeks, for geeks and just about unfathomable by mere mortals. Plain language, step-by-step set-up guides are what are needed. If anyone knows of such a simple, easy to follow set-up guide, I'd be interested to know about it

[Primefalcon]

I use google chat/voice myself, I used to use skype but since Microsoft got... it's just gotten a bit too resource intensive for my liking

[monkeybrain2012]

Use flash?

There is also faceflow
http://www.faceflow.com/

[monkeybrain2012]

https://jitsi.org/

and here is a video presentation for jitsi.

http://vimeo.com/36396972

[Linuxratty]

Talk is worldwide. Two different services.

Gotcha..We set up a poker hangout in G+ and found out this is correct.
All 4 people came in very well with only one person crashing due to her isp...
It was really nice that it switched the large screen image as each person spoke..Far better than Skype.
Google went all out here!

[mJayk]

Probably your system is powerful enough that the effect Skype has on your games is too small to care about. But Skype IS slowing down your games a little. I'll bet if you could really objectively measure fps with Skype and without (Clean boot with Skype never started) that it would show up, though probably not worth worrying about on your system.

I will admit it depends on the game and the quality of the computer hardware but I have seem Skype noticeably slow down games (sometimes even make them unplayable) and have had several people I know report the same thing. Also using Skype as a game chat much more often there are break ups and sometimes even dropped calls because of bandwidth conflicts than other chat software.

Again Mumble is the best software for game chatting but if you have enough bandwidth and system resources that Skype isn't a problem then go ahead and continue to use it, though the alternatives are less of a drain and may be even better for your friends that don't have as powerful machines or good of Internet providers as you do.

No offence but I really doubt Skype now slows down your computer more now Microsoft have bought it.

Of course programs like mumble, vent and TS are better for talking whilst gaming. Its what they are built for.

[Sebjectivist]

https://jitsi.org/

and here is a video presentation for jitsi.

http://vimeo.com/36396972

Nice, thanks. Finally something else then Twinkle for my Diamondcard account. Too bad it's still a bit of a hassle to get the settings right..

Nice read if not already mentioned; Free and Open Source alternatives to Skype VoIP

[mr john]

Actually Google and Microsoft are more trustworthy than many other software companies. And their software usually works very well if you use it right. Why? because they invest more resources into their software.

Everything you do online is tracked, so don't think avoiding those big companies is going to protect you in anyway. There are alot of worse smaller companies out there. Like zynga etc.