[Discuss] Skype alternatives

[John Blomfield]

Several of my family now have Apple products and FaceTime. It would be 
nice to be able to run FaceTime on Linux. It shouldn't be that hard to 
for someone to do that but I guess Apple doesn’t want it.

I am thinking of encouraging my family members, near and far, to switch 
to Google's Hangout since most people use Chrome these days.

John

On 08/29/2014 03:13 AM, Patrick wrote:
> Since Microsoft bought Skype, I've been skeptical about its
> continued reliability.  This was confirmed recently, in a minor
> way [the latest version won't work without PulseAudio, but the
> Skype package does not depend on it; it just silently fails to
> work [silence being the operative word, here].  Previous
> versions of Skype are no longer allowed to connect, btw].
>
> That's only a minor setback, but I expect things to get worse,
> not better over time.  After all, they're more interested in
> putting Windows on smart-phones than maintaining a free [as in
> beer] online calling service.
>
> So I've been looking at Linphone.  Does anyone know of a good
> SIP trunk provider?  Eg, something I could use to call normal
> phones.  That's what I've mainly used Skype for anyway; I don't
> have a long-distance plan, and until now wasn't inclined to get
> one.
>
> Cheap, worldwide, reliable -- pick any two?  Or can you get all
> three?
>
> Actually, it doesn't even need to be worldwide; decent North
> American coverage would be plenty.
>
> Something cell providers generally treat as a *local* incoming
> would also be nice.  Seems unlikely, but it would be nice.
>
> And if I can take incoming phone-calls on my laptop, I might drop
> Telus altogether.  Not essential, but that would be even nicer.
>
> If this works out, I might even get an Android phone -- if only
> to install Linphone on it.  ;-)
>
>
> Thanks,
> Patrick.


-- 
John Blomfield
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