Bug#682698: alternatives to mumble

[Chris Knadle <Chris.Knadle@coredump.us>]

On Thursday, August 30, 2012 14:51:06, Daniel Pocock wrote (to #682010):
> This is not a comment in support of or against Mumble, rather, it is
> looking beyond Mumble
> 
> A few weeks ago I put up a wiki page about alternatives to mumble:
> 
>    http://wiki.debian.org/AlternativesToMumble
> 
> and I've put up an ITP (sponsor needed) for SylkServer (supports SIP,
> Jabber and IRC conferencing)
> 
>   http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=682698
> 
> Ultimately, the widespread deployment of standards-based solutions (such
> as SylkServer and others mentioned in the wiki) should eliminate any
> need for anyone to run Mumble and then celt can be put to rest.

What originally drew me to Mumble was:

     a) it was built on Qt and has clients for Linux/Windows/Mac
        (i.e. is cross-platform)
     b) is free-as-in-freedom software
     c) is encrypted for both voice and text communication (simple and
        automatic in the user sense)
     d) it has a 3D overlay for popular videogames to allow seeing
        who is talking
     e) it was easy to set up
     f) has ACL rules for specifying user privileges

I initially needed a VoIP solution for a group of gamers who were running 
multiple platforms.  Mumble fits that need well in that there are different 
"channels" one can join, similar to chatrooms, which can be done quickly with 
just a couple of mouse clicks.  Mumble has no provision for making phone 
calls, which has its pros and cons.  To connnect to a Mumble server from the 
client, one generally only needs a single DNS name or an IP address (although 
it's possible to change the default port and/or to require a password for 
entry to the server).


I caught your DebConf12 talk "Free (as in freedom) communications, VoIP and 
messaging":
 
   http://penta.debconf.org/dc12_schedule/events/933.en.html

from this it seemed like making connections required knowing particular email 
addresses to make connections, and I didn't see any discussion concerning 
chatroom communications.  It's thus not immediately clear to me what the user 
impact would be concerning switching from Mumble to one of the alternatives.  
If you could give a brief description of the (general) connection and chatroom 
choosing process of the alternatives, that would at least give me a 'gut feel' 
for whether they might be fitting.  The alternatives are obviously more 
versitile, but that comes with some complication on both the client and server 
side, which raises the 'barrier-to-entry' a bit.



Concerning this ITP concerning sponsorship, I suggest having a look at the 
Debian Mentors [1] page and the [debian-mentors] [2] mailing list; right now 
Wheezy is frozen and so new NEW packages are being sponsored for uploads right 
now AFAIK.

In the meantime if you've got packages ready I wouldn't mind trying them 
[assuming I cand find time to do so] to see if they'd could theoretically be a 
drop-in replacement for Mumble and to get the packages ready for sending to 
[debian-mentors] after Wheezy is released.

[1]  http://mentors.debian.net/

[2]  https://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/

  -- Chris

--
Chris Knadle
Chris.Knadle@coredump.us