[HacktionLab] Open Source / federated VOIP?

[zylum at peacenews.info]

Hello,
       I was just reading through the thread in the list archive on this 
topic myself. Since M$ bought Skype, the Linux version has been going 
down hill. No surprise there. The latest problem is that the up to date 
version of Skype refuses to play with the up to date version of 
Pulseaudio in Debian Jessie. There are threads out the on the Skype, 
Debian and Ubuntu forums if anyone is interested.

For me, this is a sign that it is time to leave it all behind and 
embrace a genuinely free software alternative. I have been looking at:
https://jitsi.org/ (Apache License)
https://ostel.co/
https://ring.cx/ (GPL License)

Security/encryption is not my priority, though it would be nice. For me, 
the free-ness of the software is at least as important.

All of the above use SIP so they should be inter-operable, IE: someome 
using jitsi should be able to call someone using ring, right? Users 
should also be able to call folk using google talk - I believe - which 
would be great, as trying to train all of my contacts to move away from 
Skype needs to be as straightforward as possible.

NB: There are lots of articles out there on What's The Difference 
Between WebRTC and SIP?

If anyone is already using either of these, or another SIP client 
regularly (on Debian), I would be interested to hear. Previously this 
thread seemed only to get as far as "I tried it once, it sort of worked" 
If anyone would be interested to arrange a time to call or to try a 
multi-way conference call, it would be good to put this software through 
its paces.

BTW - I have written a piece, trying to win over novices to the idea of 
GNU/Linux for Peace News if anyone is interested...
http://peacenews.info/node/8150/it%E2%80%99s-time-we-valued-our-digital-freedom
(Sadly, they did not include the link to Tisquel which I suggested, as 
it is the only distro' I have used which is both fully free and 
genuinely usable.)

Benjamin.

---- Previous Message ----
Date: Tue, 06 Oct 2015 23:28:39 +0100
 From: nmd <nmd at riseup.net>
To: "hacktionlab at lists.aktivix.org" <hacktionlab at lists.aktivix.org>
Subject: Re: [HacktionLab] Open Source / federated VOIP?

Hi, Thought I'd just resurrect this thread to ask what y'all think of 
some of the new webrtc offerings out there?
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