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Need a good Skype alternative

PostPosted: Oct 26th, '18, 22:39
by ahripon19
I need some sort of video conferencing software for a few weeks. Skype won't install on my system (it keeps complaining about some library that I have installed but it can't find) so I've been looking for alternatives. So far I've tried the following but all of 'em have some problem or another:

ekiga installs properly but says "Security check failed" whenever I test Echo Services, and I can't call another user

qtox crashes whenever I try to view the Audio/Video setting under Preferences

I installed jitsi from https://download.jitsi.org/jitsi/debian/ but I can't seem to find it in my menu or start it from terminal. Additionally the internet seems to indicate that jitsi is at version 2-something, while the latest I can find is version 1.0-256.

Please give me Suggestions for best skype alternative?

Thanks!
Ripon

Re: Need a good Skype alternative

PostPosted: Dec 31st, '18, 12:26
by aguador
I am not on the forum much lately, so apologize for the very late reply. You have probably solved this by now, but a couple of alternatives occur to me.

First, I use WebRTC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebRTC) based alternatives as part of my work, this includes both https://Talky.io and https://meet.jit.si. The good points: neither require installing any software (except browser extensions for screen sharing if desired), ip addresses are presumably discarded after a few days so privacy is much better, and there are mobile apps available (although Talky does seem to work without the app, at least if you have the Firefox browser in your mobile). The bad points are: the need to send e-mails (no program running in the background that you can call without prior arrangement) and having WebRTC active will reveal your true ip address, a problem if you use a VPN.

Second, you can us XMPP (Jabber) accounts with pidgin for video calls as well as messaging. If you are in contact with those using other OSs, there are clients available for XMPP, as long as they are willing to set up free XMPP accounts (https://list.jabber.at/). FYI Google Hangouts uses an "enhanced" XMPP protocol, where I believe "enhanced" simply means "in a walled garden," i.e., so it can force you to use a google account and collect your data.

Third, there is Jami (formerly GNU Ring) which uses p-to-p technology that I have found interesting (https://jami.net/) but not used. There are daemon and client (Gnome & KDE) packages available in the repositories if you search for "ring". The protocol has become sufficiently popular that there was a request a year or so ago to add a field for ring/jami addresses in the contacts of the Evolution e-mail client.

Fourth, there is now a web-based version of Skype, although I don't know much about it . . . .

Sorry for not responding sooner, but I hope this helps. For the benefit of others, let us know what you ended up doing and close this with a "solved" if you have found an alternative that works for you.

Re: Need a good Skype alternative

PostPosted: Jan 1st, '19, 03:07
by morgano
I have not tested yet, but recent Nextcloud servers provides video conferencing.

Re: Need a good Skype alternative

PostPosted: Aug 25th, '19, 19:36
by jeevanism
ahripon19 wrote:

Please give me Suggestions for best skype alternative?

Thanks!
Ripon


I have used Jitsi in the past which is HQ video conferencing application. Another good option is Ekiga ( former Gnome Meeting)

Re: Need a good Skype alternative

PostPosted: May 10th, '20, 14:19
by laidlaws
It depends on whether you need to connect to other Skype users. Skype is proprietary, and uses a proprietary version of VOIP. No ordinary VOIP app, such as Ekiga, can let you talk to a Skype user.