Multimedia support in Linux

One of the few reasons that I have to (reluctantly) boot into M$ WinXP is the lack of adequate multimedia support. Of course, everyone knows that Linux’s support for multimedia files is unsurpassed (many of my friends have switched to using mplayer in WinXP and MacOS X as well!). However, what is lacking is device driver support.

Things such as web cams, video conferencing and voice chats are still a pain in Linux. The [[http://gaim-vv.sf.net/|gaim-vv]] project is taking a step in this direction. However, AFAIK the project is not yet ready for daily use. Then there is [[http://gnomemeeting.org/|GnomeMeeting]] which provides an alternative to the commericially popular NetMeeting software. However, its usage is hampered by the lack of availibility of device drivers for most of the hardware in the market. But the situation is rapidly improving.

The [[http://skype.com/|skype]] messenger offers a text and voice based solution that is functionally and interface-wise almost at par with its Windows version. I succesfully tried out voice chatting from my Debian box with friends running Linux as well as Windows. The sound quality is **much** better than that obtainable with say MSN or Yahoo! messenger. Advanced features such as conference calls are not available yet, but coming soon. You can, though, make PC to phone calls using Skype.