On Friday 18 March 2005 15:44, Eric Dantan Rzewnicki wrote: > I know very little about skype and don't have much time or personal > interest in learning about it. But, it's making inroads. I want to > understand what it does and what free software alternatives are > available. Is it possible for free software alternatives to inter > operate with the skype world? Free software VOIP typically takes the form of SIP, or Session Initiation Protocol, which is as close to a standard for end users as VOIP really has. Skype doesn't have any SIP gateways as far as I know, though they're supposed to offer something called "SkypeIn" this summer to do that. Personally, I'd rather just avoid them altogether, as it seems what they've brought to the mix is primarily marketing. I would say Linphone is the most widely used free SIP client software, at least under Linux. Linspire seems to be throwing some money at PhoneGaim, though, so maybe it'll be grandmother-friendly before Linphone. Rob
