On 11/04/2011 09:28 AM, C pecked at the keyboard and wrote:
On Fri, Nov 4, 2011 at 14:07, Ken Schneider - openSUSE
wrote: There's also GoogleVoice, perhaps also only in the USA, that can be used to place calls to landlines, domestic and international.
Yup, USA only (for now) for the Google Voice feature.
I can make VoIP calls from the browser client (I just tested it and I could call my non-US mobile from a non-US location/account)... which is fine if I choose to remain in my GMail account all day long... but I've got other family members using the home PC. With Skype and Ekiga, the soft phone is a communal tool.. anyone can just pop open Skype or Ekiga and make a call... Using Gtalk... it's not an option because I'm not leaving a browser page open all the time to be able to make and receive calls.
The dedicated GTalk client is not available for Linux, and last I checked fails in interesting ways when you try to make it work in Wine.
So... while GTalk is a nice idea, it's impractical on Linux... unless they make a dedicated Linux client... and even then with it so closely tied to private GMail accounts, it's hard to justify on a multi-user family computer.
Ekiga works very well with external VoIP providers.. but you lose out on the IM part.
It'll be painful if/when Microsoft kills the Linux side of Skype.
C.
Oh it's not a question of if, only when. That is, and always has been, the MS modisoperandi. -- Ken Schneider SuSe since Version 5.2, June 1998 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org