Secure FOSS alternative to Skype on Linux & OpenBSD

encryptionfree softwaresipsoftware-recvoip

Criteria:

  • Makes audio/video calls
  • Encrypts the whole traffic (using good encryption)
  • Is cross-platform (including Windows 7, etc.)
  • Runs on modern Linux distributions (Fedora, Ubuntu, etc.)
  • Runs on OpenBSD

Does anybody know a good Free and Open-Source alternative to Skype?

Best Answer

Well, there are Ekiga and its various cousins eg. Twinkle, which support the SIP standard. Unfortunately my experience is that they do not work as reliably as Skype. In particular, Ekiga seems to get upset by Flash. That is understandable. I also find Flash quite upsetting.

If you can get Ekiga to work, its rates via Diamondcard.us are a lot cheaper than Skype, particularly for SMS, if you use that. The cost of an SMS for the locations I checked is around a third of Skypes. The difference for regular calls is less dramatic but still significant. And it is free (as in freedom) software, and seems to be quite cross-platform.

I think Ekiga does not currently support encryption, so that would violate one of your criteria.

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