There are occasions when I require a Voice Over IP (VOIP)
session. The single most pressing demand is podcast interviews ─ of
which I do a lot. When I need to record an interview, the path of least
resistance is recording a VOIP call. That, of course, requires a VOIP
client. For the longest time, the only VOIP client of note was
Skype.
Even though Skype was purchased by Microsoft, it still remains one of
the most user-friendly VOIP clients available. And considering Skype’s
user-base, it is often considered the de facto standard software for the
task.
That doesn’t mean Skype is your only choice. Yes, Skype works on
Linux (and, for the most part, works really well); but for those who’d
rather choose an option that’s open source (or simply not
Microsoft-owned), I present to you a few possible options to satisfy
your VOIP needs.
Note: Some of these VOIP clients require creating accounts
in order to place calls outside of your LAN. Some of these
clients/services do offer free SIP accounts that allow you to call other
users within the same service. Finally, the major caveat to using any
of these clients is that they cannot make calls to Skype users (as Skype
uses an undisclosed, proprietary protocol).
With that said, let’s take a look at some of the best VOIP clients for Linux.
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