Have you noticed that there is a quite revolution going on out there. Most people I know dont know about it, but it will revolutionise the way we communicate just as much as the mobile phone did.  Some times its referred to as WEB 2.0, but in reality its the true exploitation of the Internet for digital communications. I quite like the phrase "digital presence" because I think it sums up the virtual world of alto egos that began with vanity email addresses and domain names to World of Warcraft  chars.

During 2005 we have witnessed the buyout of Skype by eBay, the teaming of Yahoo and MSN and Google getting into Voice over IP Internet telephony. One nice thing about being on SUSE and Linux is that we can exploit these  new tools and technologies as well as Windows users, because the browser has truly become the portal for digital communications.

VoIP allows us to make totally free phone calls over the internet. The digitization of telephone exchanges has given the rise to the integration of the traditional telephone networks with the internet. Companies like Vonage have pioneered the ability to make Intenet phone calls to traditonal landlines using normal DECT handsets.

Skype has become almost defacto for peer to peer telephone conversations between computers on the net. The quality of the calls continues to amaze anyone who has not tried it. Skype for for Linux is now available from Here

Skype also offers the ability to call normal landlines using its Skype Out facility. Calls are charged as local calls on a pay as you go basis wherever they are in the world.





                                                              Skype Virtual Phone

The protocol for making telephone calls over the internet is SIP (session initiation protocol). Sadly Skype had decided to use its own protocol, so you might want to consider using SIPPhone with the Gizmo project Virtual phone. This gives you the same functionality as Skype but has not had a chance to establish itself on the market just yet.

As of October 2005 I have not found a way to make calls across SIP to Skyp.

The instant messaging world is dominated by three players, AOL, Microsoft MSN, and Yahoo.  As users for these facilities  represent significant advertising revenue for these companies they have not been very interested  in offering interconnectivity between each other.  Now due to the entry of Skype and Google they have realised that the battle field has changed.

With SUSE we have the wonder of the Gaim client, which is a multi-protocol client that from a singel interface allows you to connect to all of the Major instant messaging networks and accounts that you may have created out there, cool!

In the Open Source world with Have Jabber. Jabber is a protocol that does what the guys above do, but also has the capability to provide interoperability with the above. Jabber differs in being a distributed server solution a bit like the email servers connected around the world, as opposed to a centralised solution offererd wby the proprietary guys.

Skype has also recently added instant messaging to its portfolio.

To come

People Proxies
Webcams
Blogs
Wiki
RSS syndication