Debian GNU-LINUX communications

Ekiga

Ekiga seems to be the tool to use for audio and video calls on the Gnome desktop. Ekiga is based on a communication framework called Telepathy which enables connection by multiple clients simultaneously.  What communications network should I use?

• the original XMPP server jabber.org
• a French or German XMPP server

Skype

I use Skype to communicate with Windows users and also with some other Ubunutu-GNU/Linux users. Would it be possible to use other tools to communicate with them?

Recordmydesktop

Recordmydesktop can be started from the command line, a flag is required to use the pulse sound server:

recordmydesktop --device pulse

Stop recording with CTRL+C.
To use the GUI, the advanced / Sound / Device setting should also be changed to "pulse". To stop a recording started from the GUI, show the Gnome bottom bar, using the windows + M key, then press on the icon that appears there.

As explained in this Fedora forum, Gnome also has an own desktop recording system which can be started and stopped with CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + R.

 Webex

Some colleagues would like to use Cisco Webex. This requires the Java plugin for Firefox. Based on this blog, I installed it with:

$> apt-get install icedtea-7-plugin
This will install web browser plugin based on OpenJDK 7 and IcedTea. 

But there is no sound. Because Webex uses a proprietary 32 bit sound application, the only fix seems to be to install a 32 bit version of Firefox / Iceweasel.

Blog: Webex support on 64 bit Fedora Linux system explain that 32 bit version of has to be used:

"One means of successfully accessing WebEx from Fedora 12 x86_64 is to use a 32-bit version of Mozilla Firefox with Sun JRE and Adobe Flash 32-bit plugins.

Why 32-bit?

1. Per the JRE download site, the 64-bit version does not have support for java applets or Java Web Start (JWS is required to run another WebEx like app named Elluminate).
2. Per the WebEx System Requirements page only, 32-bit versions of Linux are supported."

Blog: Install 32 bit Firefox and Thuderbird on Debian 64 bit.
Blog: 32 bit applications on 64 bits Linux Mint

This user had an issue with i386 packages and explains how to remove them from his system. How do I remove all i386 architecture packages from my Debian installation?

The Debian multi architecture page explains how to install 32 bit programs (called the i386 architecture) on a 64 bit machine.