Jitsi is the only one that's worked reliably for me for doing video calls, especially when the person on the other end is not using GNU/Linux. I use it through my own Asterisk server.
However, Jitsi has a serious problem which is that it only uses a patented codec -- doesn't support Ogg Theora for example. I also have some other issues with it -- local video display never works for me, for example. But my webcam is also a bit flaky so that might not be the software's fault. Ekiga should in theory work for video calls, and use Ogg Theora, and I have had some luck with it when talking to another GNU/Linux user. But cross-platform attempts have failed. For just audio calls, at the FSF we tend to use Twinkle. GNU Telephony is promising, and people can support it at https://my.fsf.org/donate/working-together/telephony/. For all the ideas in this thread, I started a placeholder at http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Skype_Replacement -- I hope people can help populate that and organize the way forward. We have those wiki pages for other High Priority Projects (you can see them in the category), not sure why we didn't have a Skype one yet. An assessment of the existing options would be a great start for the page. -john -- John Sullivan | Executive Director, Free Software Foundation GPG Key: 61A0963B | http://identi.ca/johnsu01 | http://fsf.org/blogs/RSS Do you use free software? Donate to join the FSF and support freedom at <http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=8096>.