HOWTO: Instant Messaging in GNU/Linux: Gizmo
The last instant messaging application I’m going to look at is a relative newcomer to the scene. Gizmo has come out of nowhere and has taken on Skype head-on.
I’ve already looked at Kopete, Gaim, and Skype, so where does Gizmo fit in to this group?
As mentioned in the intro, Gizmo falls into the same category as Skype. Gizmo doesn’t provide any way to connect to the ‘main’ IM networks such as MSN or Yahoo. Rather, like Skype, Gizmo is a network unto itself.
There’s a part of me that’s a little annoyed that people who develope IM clients still don’t get it. It’s 2006 dudes, we don’t want to be divided anymore. Everything (almost) is moving towards openess but Skype and Gizmo seem to be oblivious to this. That seems to have worked for Skype thus far, but that’s largely because Skype was the only one doing what they were doing. As more upstarts like Gizmo come on to the scene, a demand for inter-network connectivity will grow.
Anyhow, onto Gizmo. I found that the client itself looks a lot more polished than the Skype client. The clumsiness of the Skype client has been long lamented in the GNU/Linux community.
The IM client seems to work fine, but since I don’t know anyone else that uses Gizmo it was a little hard to test. The telephony application is certainly more responsive than Skype. Hangups are accomplished with an efficient snap and the test calls I made starting ringing right away and had pretty good quality.
One neato feature Gizmo has is a ‘Map it!’ button. I used it while making a test call and you can seem from the picture that it got me right (Calgary) and presumably the other party as well. It was a test recording call, though, so I couldn’t ask to confirm. Gizmo has a lot of SIP type functionality that may appeal to some users, but I’m focusing more on my standard IM and odd phone call type of use.
Charge-wise, Gizmo-to-Gizmo calls are free. A Gizmo CallIn number is significantly cheaper than a SkypeIn number, but a SkypeIn number comes with Voicemail. I don’t see any mentioon on the Gizmo site about voicemail. I just received a voicemail, therefore I guess Gizmo has it! However (I just discovered this) Gizmo has built in call recording! Something that podcasters are really looking for.
Outgoing calls via Gizmo’s CallOut feature is comparable in cost to Skype’s SkypeOut system.
So there you have it - four IM clients that may do what you need. Each has their strengths and weaknesses so what’s right for me might not be right for you. At the very least be assured that you can use all of the major IM networks on GNU/Linux and get some Internet telephony love going as well.
Enjoy!
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10 opinions for HOWTO: Instant Messaging in GNU/Linux: Gizmo
Luc
Feb 10, 2006 at 1:22 pm
I think you’re being unfair on Gizmo with the “Almost everything seems to be moving towards openness but Skype and Gizmo seem to be oblivious to this” comment. Fair enough for Skype, but Gizmo is based on open protocols (XMPP and SIP) and hence is as interoperable as it can be - you can IM people on Jabber and Google talk, and do the VOIP stuff with any SIP compatible network (and google talk too I think). What more could you ask for as far as openness is concerned? Gizmo has put considerable effort into being open, and if you want a client which can IM MSN, Yahoo AIM etc then you’re free to use a different client on the Gizmo network, but that’s Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo’s fault for not being open, not Gizmo’s.
Jon
Feb 10, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Hey Luc,
You’re probably right. I think it’s fairly obvious that I don’t really know that much about Gizmo. Today’s run was the first look I’ve really given it.
The point of my little series here was to point out some of the IM options available to users who may be looking for this type of info before coming over to GNU/Linux (”Can I still MSN?”). Gizmo and Skype both have some fairly complex functionality that goes beyond the IM capabilities that I was trying to focus on. I tried to reel it in before it got out of control and in the effort I might have been unfair to Gizmo.
Thanks for clarifying this stuff for us!
J
Luc
Feb 10, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Hi,
The Gizmo project is a client for the sipphone.com network set up by Michael Robertson, the Linspire guy, he’s got some interesting views on the whole fragmented IM situation we have today,
http://www.michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute_id=202
Personally I see the gizmo project as more of a voip service than an IM client, but it’s perfectly capable of being used that way. I’d stick with Kopete/Gaim myself fot the time being as they both provide (or are planning) SIP connectivity, so in that respect I agree with you that purely as an IM client the gizmo project would be more useful if it did support other protocols. However at best this is just covering up the real problem - the closed and proprietry nature of the popular IM networks - long live Jabber! :)
Ganesh
Feb 10, 2006 at 9:04 pm
can gizmo be used to “talk” to users on gtalk? I have tried to use it but being behind a proxy, there seems to be no way to set the proxy settings in it..
Jon
Feb 10, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Hi Ganesh,
I wouldn’t have thought so, but Luc’s first comment seems to indicated that he thinks so. Hopefully he’ll come back and maybe comment more on that.
Luc
Feb 11, 2006 at 4:13 am
From what I’ve read on gizmo’s website & forums, its currently limited to text, however Google is planning on adding SIP support to Google talk, so this will be available in the (hopefully near) future.
OTOH, GAIM is including full google talk voice support using google’s libjinge, I’m not sure if this is included in the 2.0 beta, but it’s certainly in the subversion repository if you’re feeling adventurous!
Ganesh
Feb 11, 2006 at 5:00 am
(am kidna noob still) Is the gaim subversion thing you are saying same as cvs or something else? The changelog in the cvs repos dont have any mention of jingle at all…
Luc
Feb 11, 2006 at 5:40 am
Sorry, I meant CVS. I think it is in there, but it may well be rather broken at the moment, which is why it hasn’t made it into 2.0
It is supposed to be working in Kopete in their SVN repository though (http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=Kopete%20Jabber%20Jingle)
Psi also seems to have a more or less functional implimentation in development - http://psi-im.org/wiki/Jingle_branch
I guess the bottom line is it is in development, and you might be able to get it to work now, but there aren’t any stable implimentations just yet. Hopefully it shouldn’t be too far off though.
Jon
Feb 11, 2006 at 9:17 am
Wow…look at all the good stuff I’m stirred up. I may well take a second look at these clients from a telephony slant rather than an IM slant.
Thanks for all this, guys.
Ganesh
Feb 13, 2006 at 5:03 am
yup, i have been using the psi jingle branch for the past 2 weeks or so and i must say its been working fine :) if only the gaim devs soon integrate libjingle into gaim, it would be a great boon for me!! just one messenger to serve all my IM (and talk) needs :D
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