Re: [Sheflug] Video conferencing/Webcam Program for MSN

["Wonkey Donkey" <wonkey_donkey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Simon Brown" <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <sheflug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 9:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Sheflug] Video conferencing/Webcam Program for MSN


> On 02/01/07 21:10:22, Wonkey Donkey wrote:
>> If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them :)
> Have you tried Kopete? it supports MSN video I believe.
>
> Simon
>

Apologies for the late reply. Yes, I have tried it. But it doesn't recognise 
my cam, despite it working ok with all the other webcam enabled programs.

The driver is compiled in kernel, together with v4l etc etc.

The only other option was disabling it in kernel, and using usb-pwc-re. But 
that is *very* unstable and doesn't even compile on my system.

The thought that keeps coming to mind is this:

If you (we) (whoever) took the best bits of Kmess, Kopete, Ekiga etc and put 
them all together in a single program, we really would have an MSN 
compatible program to be proud of.

Right now, it doesn't feel that way. And of course, its difficult to brag 
about an all singing all dancing free OS that does everything (and more) 
than MS does, and with so much more style too.

This, I think, is one of those key areas where we currently lack prowess.

When I look at OS options, regardless of vendor, I always consider the 
following as minimum requirements:

Decent web browser
Decent email client (that supports multiple accounts)
Media player (That supports mp3 and dvd playback)
Instant messaging (Including video-conferencing/webcam support)
Office tools (At least document/spreadsheet/presentation support)

And the following which are not 'must-have' but 'would-be-nice':

Database support in common formats
A good customisable interface to the OS as a whole
DVD/CD/Optical media utilities
A good file management system

That is, of course, me speaking from a personal perspective.

The open source world, to my knowledge, has most but not all of these 
things. I stick with it because I get more and more disappointed at the 
whole MS approach, and because once we achieve these things, I believe that 
the open source movement will surpass the likes of Microsoft. (In some areas 
it does already, just not quite enough).

These are my own opinions, and from my perspective as an end-user looking 
for a suitable desktop alternative to the MS way.

Regards.

Steve. 



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