[Fsuk-manchester] [Fellowship-uk] Software Freedom Day: Hunt for Skype alternatives

[Dave Love]

james riley <jimr1603 at gmail.com> writes:

> Apologies to those who are getting this 2ce since Gmail doesn't seem
> to handle replying to just mailing lists.
>
> I'm suddenly very interested in a Skype alternative since for a couple
> of weeks I'm likely to see my supervisor by Skype. Undesirable. (But
> at least I can use uni hardware that's already dirtied by its presence
> :P) Is there an alternative that works well on GNU/Linux & Windows and
> is incredibly painless, since I'll have to persuade 2 windows users to
> install something else.

I'm not sure whether it's relevant, but:

As I understand it, the JANET video conferencing service ("access grid")
is usable with free software originating in the old MBONE stuff from
UCL, and now <https://www.mcs.anl.gov/research/projects/accessgrid/>.
However, I've had no need of AG since our VC room with proprietary
software was scrapped, so I can't vouch for it.  AG has non-trivial
notworking issues, which presumably rule it out for general use, but
major universities are likely to have that sorted.  AG is, or was,
supported at Manchester; perhaps an expert is listening?