[LAU] Installing Google Voice Chat for Linux on Fedora instead of Debian

[david]

Niels Mayer wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 1:58 AM, david <gnome at hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
>> Don't blame Google for that. On all five of the computers around here, ALSA sets up the PC speaker as an input source!
> 
> Skype beta for Linux (2.1.0.47), for example, uses, or works well
> alongside the phonon framework. That way, when i setup
> SystemSettings->ComputerAdministration->Multimedia->{AudioOutput,AudioCapture}->Communication->LogitechUSBHeadset
> , skype ends up using the headset. And if some other app, like
> google-chrome&voice are hogging the headset even when not actively
> using them, skype will automatically go on and use the next configured
> device. If that "device" happens to be Jackd, then phonon will do the
> right thing and actually invoke jackd with all the right arguments. (I
> was surprised by the level of "magical" Jack integration  in phonon).
> 
> No such luck with either google-chrome or this new google-voice thing.
> I might end up giving konqueror a go since at least it will use phonon
> to connect the browser to the audio devices.
> 
>> But all five of the computers here run Debian and have for many years. Outside a few folk on LAU, I don't know anyone who runs Fedora. So, clearly, you are a fringe-case. ;-)
> 
> Seems like Fedora is preferred by those that are professional computer
> scientists or engineers, whereas Ubuntu is targeted at consumers.
> Likewise, since Fedora eventually becomes Red Hat Enterprise Linux,
> there's a good chance your financial institutions, telecom companies,
> online web services, etc are actually using product versions of
> "Fedora 10" or "Fedora 11."  How exactly is that "fringe" ?

For Skype/GoogleVoice consumers, they're more likely to be running 
Ubuntu than Fedora or RHEL. So, yes, I think Fedora/RHEL is "fringe" for 
this particular market.

> As to why there might be Fedora users on LAU, consider the existence
> of a major repository of Pro Audio/Video software (and realtime
> patches of current fedora kernels)
> http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/ as well as the fact
> that ALSA creator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaroslav_Kysela works
> there as well as Pulseaudio creator
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Interviews/LennartPoettering .

I know. CCRMA software is the only reason I considered Fedora for my 
little effectbox.

Maybe the ALSA creator can explain why it always considers a PC speaker 
to be INPUT?

I intensely dislike Pulseaudio, so I don't consider its creator a point 
in any distro's favor. ;-)

> Also, ignoring the entire RPM community doesn't just ignore Fedora, it
> also ignores http://www.opensuse.org/ a major distro with backing from
> Novell and AMD. (Which might be the real reason for making RPM second
> fiddle at Google -- the fact that Suse Linux Enterprise and Desktop
> provides competition to Google's main business: stealing all of
> Microsoft's Office and .Net customers:
> http://techrights.org/2009/03/24/sled-11-is-about-mono-tech/ ).

Could be true. Don't know much about OpenSUSE, but if it's money is 
coming from server rooms, it's not likely to be used by consumers of 
Skype/GoogleVoice.

-- 
David
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community