Ekiga is a free Voice over IP softphone allowing you to do free calls
over the Internet.

Today you constantly see people looking for alternatives to Skype, Gizmo, or another service. One that users frequently overlook is Ekiga. It comes with a standard GNOME desktop, but many users never realize its existence. Ekiga has most of the features of Skype and Gizmo, but with the added videoconferencing feature.

Ekiga, formerly known as GnomeMeeting, is a videophone program similar to Skype. It’s free, open source, and has so far worked better for me than Skype ever did. Today, we’ll cover how to use Ekiga to conference Linux and Windows clients together.

This is the first in what I hope will be a series of interviews with major GNU/Linux distribution lead developers. This interview is with Clement Lefebvre the lead developer of Linux Mint and he talks with me about his project, development, the community, and his views on free vs open source software.

Many of us wonder, why is there so much excitement over Skype when, at its core, Ekiga is a more robust application with even more maturity behind it?

Issue 19 of Free Software Magazine is out, and so are another 18 fantastic articles. Tony Mobily opens the magazine with his editorial on file formats. Andrew Min and Gary Richmond join forces to provide useful tips&tricks, while Robin Monks reviews some of the best free software media players.

The other day I found that the latest Linux Skype client, version 2.0.0.72, does not include SMS functionality. Frustrated with Skype's treating Linux users like second-rate citizens, I resolved to see what alternatives there are to Skype. I started with Ekiga.

What do you have to lose by using Internet Phone with Ekiga Softphone. This is easy to set up and can save you a lot of money by using it. This is especially a useful tool if you have broadband access to the Internet. Here is a step-by-step approach to setting up your phone.

This article will present a simple VoIP solution using Asterisk, an open source private branch exchange (PBX) product. It will show you how to install Asterisk, configure it using its LDAP backend, and connect to it using the Ekiga software VoIP client and a Cisco 7900 Series VoIP telephone to make calls.