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#16
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OT - Skype alternative?
On 28/07/2017 18:26:56, David B. wrote:
On 28-Jul-17 1:45 AM, Mayayana wrote: I just went through a maddening session of Microsoft sleaze for a friend. Skype said her account "had problems". It turned out they were trying to force her to set up an outlook.com account without admitting that was their plan. They pretended there was a mixup and then pretended there was a security issue. But once she set up outlook.com, presto, the mixup and the need for a new password magically disappeared. Skype came up, but not before showing a window that said: "There have been no recent purchases from this account. Let's go shopping!" Maybe people are used to this kind of thing. I was amazed at the bald-faced sleaze of it all. Anyway.... I don't use Skype or anything like it. I wonder if there's some other alternative that works well and isn't so slimy. What do people like? What about if some friends are on Mac or Linux? Do other programs work on those? What is this class of program even called? FYI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FaceTime I just 'works'! :-) Agreed it 'always' works, I am a windows user but have an iPad just for using Facetime. Can keep in touch with family around the world who mostly have iPhones. -- mick |
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#18
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OT - Skype alternative?
"Paul" wrote
| In the article here, they advocate setting up an emulator | and running FaceTime that way. This will use $500 of your | time, instead of $500 of your money. | | https://www.techntrack.org/download-...ws-7-8-and-10/ | Sounds great. I know Windows is going downhill when people start talking about ways to run VMs to get Apple software, rather than the other way around. |
#19
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OT - Skype alternative?
"mick" wrote
| With family members in Canada(x4), Australia(x8), Dubai(x1) and those | near home(x3) all using ipads or iphones Facetime is a no brainer. | Hardly a day goes by without someone(mostly grand children)who do not | call. Not only that, I get to see their wider environment too. | $500 is chicken feed to be able to have that live contact and all those | memories. I guess that's a good example of how Apple stays on top. They can't do it with patent extortion, slave labor and tax fraud alone. The real trick is engineering extreme incompatibility. Get one sucker to buy a device locked into the Apple Mall and their friends will fall like dominoes.... no matter what the cost.... because most people simply won't bother to figure out the best way to do things. And if there's anything that Apple does well it's "no brainers". Personally I don't think of $500 as chicken feed for anything.... Well, maybe for ambulance rides or Teslas. |
#20
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OT - Skype alternative?
WeChat.
The UI is a bit more complicated at first, but the capabilities are far, far, far greater - including text messaging without burning up cell phone minutes. The downside is that, while a lot of people have Skype installed on their devices, not so many have WeChat. -- Pete Cresswell |
#21
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OT - Skype alternative?
"(PeteCresswell)" wrote
| WeChat. | People seem to be misunderstanding the question, suggesting options for Mac or mobile. This is for a Windows computer. |
#22
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OT - Skype alternative?
Per Mayayana:
People seem to be misunderstanding the question, suggesting options for Mac or mobile. This is for a Windows computer. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/stor...0/9nblggh4slx7 Kind of a funny distribution of ratings though: about evenly split between one star and five stars. -- Pete Cresswell |
#23
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OT - Skype alternative?
On 7/27/2017 8:45 PM, Mayayana wrote:
I just went through a maddening session of Microsoft sleaze for a friend. Skype said her account "had problems". It turned out they were trying to force her to set up an outlook.com account without admitting that was their plan. They pretended there was a mixup and then pretended there was a security issue. But once she set up outlook.com, presto, the mixup and the need for a new password magically disappeared. Skype came up, but not before showing a window that said: "There have been no recent purchases from this account. Let's go shopping!" Maybe people are used to this kind of thing. I was amazed at the bald-faced sleaze of it all. Anyway.... I don't use Skype or anything like it. I wonder if there's some other alternative that works well and isn't so slimy. What do people like? What about if some friends are on Mac or Linux? Do other programs work on those? What is this class of program even called? Take a look at the free version of Brosix ("Brosix for Personal Use"), might solve all your concerns. https://www.brosix.com/ I've used it for 4 years with no issues. |
#24
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OT - Skype alternative?
"(PeteCresswell)" wrote
| https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/stor...0/9nblggh4slx7 | I see. Apparently it's a Metro app. So it's really a mobile app but can run on machines where Metro is operational. I'm looking for real Windows software. |
#25
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OT - Skype alternative?
"al" wrote
| Take a look at the free version of Brosix ("Brosix for Personal Use"), | might solve all your concerns. | https://www.brosix.com/ | It says "start for free", implying there's a fee. It also seems to be a "cloud" service, yet doesn't support XP, which seems odd. I think I'm looking for something very simple and not a subscription. Though I actually don't know much about how these things work. I imagined a program that could just create a connection, without any intermediary. Is some kind of intermediary required? |
#26
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OT - Skype alternative?
"al" wrote
| https://www.brosix.com/ | I just tried downloading the portable version and it seems to work OK on XP, though I can use Win7 if necessary. How does this work? I just create an account, create a "network", then get friends to also install and join my network? They don't bother you with spam, etc.? It appears they'll want a phone number. Hopefully that's not really necessary? I don't really get the mechanics of these things. ....Once it's set up I can just somehow ping a friend and we can then connect for audio or video calls? |
#27
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OT - Skype alternative?
Mayayana wrote:
"al" wrote | Take a look at the free version of Brosix ("Brosix for Personal Use"), | might solve all your concerns. | https://www.brosix.com/ | It says "start for free", implying there's a fee. It also seems to be a "cloud" service, yet doesn't support XP, which seems odd. I think I'm looking for something very simple and not a subscription. Though I actually don't know much about how these things work. I imagined a program that could just create a connection, without any intermediary. Is some kind of intermediary required? You can use "alternativeto" in a search, to find stuff. http://alternativeto.net/software/sk...atform=windows Now, I flipped quickly through there, looking for the first "soup can with string" equivalent. This example is an open source core for point-to-point communication. It appears to use TOR DHT to convert a unique user identifier, into a current IP address. Which unfortunately, is a bit more than a "purely manual" chat channel. https://github.com/irungentoo/toxcore "distributed hash table" (DHT) http://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0005.html There are a variety of clients that use that protocol. And then you'd have to track them down to test. The table has a few Windows entries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tox_%28protocol%29 Have fun, Paul |
#28
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OT - Skype alternative?
On 7/29/2017 11:06 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"(PeteCresswell)" wrote | WeChat. | People seem to be misunderstanding the question, suggesting options for Mac or mobile. This is for a Windows computer. There is a "Desktop Messenger for WhatsApp" add-on for some browsers. |
#29
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OT - Skype alternative?
"Paul" wrote
| You can use "alternativeto" in a search, to find stuff. | | http://alternativeto.net/software/sk...atform=windows | That's an interesting site that I wasn't aware of. It doesn't give much info, though. I'm more interested in hearing peoples' experience, since I don't know much about the field. But it seems that most people here don't use "chat" programs. I've been looking into brosix. It seems clean and simple. But I can't find much info other than their website and a few software download sites. A company wants my email and phone number, and yet there's almost no record off them online. I'm not used to dealing with products that require me to give up privacy, and I'm naturally suspicious of free things that say no strings but then inexplicably need my personal information. Skype is creepy that way. Maybe they all are. I guess I was hoping there might be actual free, clean services of some kind where two people just install a network program and then call each other. But most of the available products, like Skype, Viber, Google Hangouts, etc, seem to be "consumer oriented", commercial products, mainly for teens and college students. I'm curious about Brosix because it lacks that theme. But I also wonder about the overall business model. It seems like it must be an expensive business to run, yet they all promise free with no ads. | Now, I flipped quickly through there, looking for the | first "soup can with string" equivalent. This example is | an open source core for point-to-point communication. | It appears to use TOR DHT to convert a unique user | identifier, into a current IP address. Which unfortunately, | is a bit more than a "purely manual" chat channel. | | https://github.com/irungentoo/toxcore | I'm afraid you're wandering off the deep end again, Paul. I don't want to compile some funky beta product to talk about revolution with russian dissidents. I'm just looking into video/audio chat programs that are free, easy and non-intrusive. |
#30
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OT - Skype alternative?
Mayayana wrote:
"Paul" wrote | You can use "alternativeto" in a search, to find stuff. | | http://alternativeto.net/software/sk...atform=windows | That's an interesting site that I wasn't aware of. It doesn't give much info, though. I'm more interested in hearing peoples' experience, since I don't know much about the field. But it seems that most people here don't use "chat" programs. I've been looking into brosix. It seems clean and simple. But I can't find much info other than their website and a few software download sites. A company wants my email and phone number, and yet there's almost no record off them online. I'm not used to dealing with products that require me to give up privacy, and I'm naturally suspicious of free things that say no strings but then inexplicably need my personal information. Skype is creepy that way. Maybe they all are. I guess I was hoping there might be actual free, clean services of some kind where two people just install a network program and then call each other. But most of the available products, like Skype, Viber, Google Hangouts, etc, seem to be "consumer oriented", commercial products, mainly for teens and college students. I'm curious about Brosix because it lacks that theme. But I also wonder about the overall business model. It seems like it must be an expensive business to run, yet they all promise free with no ads. | Now, I flipped quickly through there, looking for the | first "soup can with string" equivalent. This example is | an open source core for point-to-point communication. | It appears to use TOR DHT to convert a unique user | identifier, into a current IP address. Which unfortunately, | is a bit more than a "purely manual" chat channel. | | https://github.com/irungentoo/toxcore | I'm afraid you're wandering off the deep end again, Paul. I don't want to compile some funky beta product to talk about revolution with russian dissidents. I'm just looking into video/audio chat programs that are free, easy and non-intrusive. What I'm trying to find for you, is just a soup can with string. No fancy Cloud features. No directory information! The thing is, if you know the IP address of the other party (say, the person sends it to you by email, five minutes before your call), then it should be possible to do video and audio transport, with no frills at all. Sending the IP by email, handles the most common case of the ISP using DHCP for address assignment to ISP customers. I think you understand this. While you may accuse me of "sending you off on an adventure", it's just possible the client for the TOX protocol, has an option for direct IP input. If so, then you get your soup can with string. The idea is, to find a client with the flexibility to configure it for "soup can mode", were there is the least possible interference from "stupid stuff". You can still use public key/private key encryption, as you're in charge of everything, and won't have to share that stuff with anyone except the intended target. So while the real tool would try to automate that stuff, you should be able to do it manually too. And with less privacy intrusion. Paul |
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