Free software Replace Skype

For the general public the best recommendation I (personally) can give
is:

1. Make an account on any XMPP/Jabber service provider that supports
Jingle audio and video calls.

Alternativelly, see if the service provider supports HTTP File
Upload.

In all the cases you can check the lists at [1][2].

2. Use a XMPP/Jabber client that supports these too. There are many for
cellphones and for desktop computers and notebooks.

3. Start a person-to-person audio/video call.

Alternativelly, make a chatroom in the XMPP/Jabber service provider
of your choice (sometimes you don't even need to be registered
there), invite more people and chat using plain text instead of
audio/video.

In that chatroom, use HTTP File Upload to send short *temporary*
audio and video (how long these are kept depends on the service
provider, their pages should describe how it works).

Usage XMPP/Jabber has the benefits of using a federated communication
standard, just like email is. So you have various XMPP/Jabber service
providers, some allowing public registration, others paid, and some
which provide addresses only for members of some
group/organization/university.

Alternativelly, use a WebRTC service provider. However, please note that
this approach isn't federated (if someone is in a WebRTC chatroom, and you
happen to prefer another service provider, you can't tell your service
provider to connect to that chatroom), and you'll likely end up running
non-free software (which is generally done automatically through a
language called JavaScript). WebRTC works well for multi-person
audio/video calls.

Finally, for those who want to help develop free/libre software which
communicates in a distributed way (beyond federation), projects like GNU
Ring ([3]) are always accepting contributions, specially to overcome
some of issues related to distributed communications. ;)

[1] , section 2 ("Create an account").

[2] .

[3] .

name at domain writes:

> Is there out any good program easy to use like skype?
>

--
- https://libreplanet.org/wiki/User:Adfeno
- Palestrante e consultor sobre /software/ livre (não confundir com
gratis).
- "WhatsApp"? Ele não é livre. Por favor, veja formas de se comunicar
instantaneamente comigo no endereço abaixo.
- Contato: https://libreplanet.org/wiki/User:Adfeno#vCard
- Arquivos comuns aceitos (apenas sem DRM): Corel Draw, Microsoft
Office, MP3, MP4, WMA, WMV.
- Arquivos comuns aceitos e enviados: CSV, GNU Dia, GNU Emacs Org, GNU
GIMP, Inkscape SVG, JPG, LibreOffice (padrão ODF), OGG, OPUS, PDF
(apenas sem DRM), PNG, TXT, WEBM.

There are
https://jitsi.org/
https://tox.chat/index.html
https://ring.cx/en

They are all libre software.

For most people, I just call/SMS them with JMP, or send them an email.

If they need features for file/picture transfers and video chats, I'll have them use a free software WebRTC service.

If they need to video chat or transfer files/pictures from their handheld device which can't do WebRTC, I'll have them install Riot from F-Droid.

When using Riot, I make sure not to run it from Chromium or the Electron app, because the jury's still out on whether Chromium and Electron are free.

I posted to the wrong thread by mistake