Speakerphone for Ubuntu 8.10?

[Tyler Aviss]

On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 3:43 PM, Lennart Sorensen
<lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 03:22:45PM -0500, Alex Beamish wrote:
>> Looks like I might have to be on a work conference call tonight, using Skype.
>>
>> I had Skype working when my system was using Fedora 8, but an upgrade
>> to F9 went badly so I moved to Ubuntu 8.10. I installed Skype recently
>> but couldn't get it to work with my USB headset. Now I'm looking at
>> have a colleague over for the conference call, so I'd like to have
>> some sort of speakerphone setup.
>>
>> I've googled for this (skype ubuntu speakerphone -headset) and found
>> this page from 2.5 years ago:
>>
>>   http://www.hotvoipnews.com/blog_46.shtml
>>
>> The unit sure looks cool, but I'm not sure I can source one here in
>> Toronto in the next six hours .. unless someone on the list can a)
>> suggest a local store that might carry this unit or b) tell me that
>> using a bog-standard microphone plugged into my sound card should work
>> fine.
>>
>> Comments?
>
> Skype sucks.  The protocol is disgusting from a network point of view.
>
> So far I highly encourage people to switch to something standards
> compliant, like sip and h.323.  I use ekiga, which uses those standards,
> and has windows and linux software available and works with lots of
> other programs (including I believe microsoft netmeeting).
>
> Avoid vendor lockin by refusing to use skype.
>
> --
> Len Sorensen
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
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>

I don't really want to start a flamewar here, but I've been noticing a
lot of responses like this lately in the list. A well-intended
suggestion is one thing, but a response such as "what you're using
sucks, switch to what I'm using" isn't very productive, and doesn't
really paint the group overall in a good light (these emails becoming
part of a longer-term archive).

I'm not about to volunteer myself as a list-PR-overlord, but it would
be nice if people would perhaps consider slightly more constructive
way of going about things.

People having varying preferences, and varying amounts of time to try
new ideas, so when they're asking for "suggestions on using X" I don't
think that "X sucks, dump it and use Y" is overly constructive.


Just my 2c...


- TJA
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists