for a couple of months i’ve been playing around with skype — it works kind of OK. what i don’t like about it is that skype are using proprietary protocols and, thus, one is locked in to whatever support, or lack thereof, you get application-wise from skype…
…which is to say, you are lucky with windows, a bit less lucky with macs, and you get to sweep the floor when you are using linux 
duh! this becomes particularly apparent when you take a look at the sound support: the skype linux client really only support the rather old open sound system (OSS) that has already been flagged as going to disappear from the linux kernel within the next couple of kernel releases. couple that with the fact that it will just take over your sound card without really sharing it with other audio applications and you have a real winner…not.
so, it comes as no surprise that i’ve been looking around to see whether there are better alternatives. there are. i’m currently using sipgate.de, an internet telephony provider operating in germany, the UK, and austria.
the nice thing about sipgate is that they use open protocols and there are lots of internet telephony (or voice-over-IP, VoIP, as it’s also called) applications as well as hardware — meaning, i’ve a number of linux client that i can use (twinkle is the one i like best) but i can also use a little box like the grandstream handytone-486 to hook up my existing analog phone to the wonderful world of VoIP. also, with sipgate i get a free POTS phone number — skype wanted €30 per year for that. now, i’ve got an erlangen phone number and all calls between dorothee and me are just local calls 
sweet.
[...] as i wrote before i’m using sipgate.de for my VoIP calls. as i don’t really want to be bothered with recharging my prepaid sipgate account i signed up for the automatic account recharge and set the limit to €10.00. well, as you can see on the right sipgate.de seems to be a bit confuzzled… [...]
pingback by d2h.net: flotsam, jetsam & lagan » puzzling sipgate.de… — Thursday, 16 March 2006 @ 19:46