5 ms·

Gmail adds video chat for Linux

120 points by SandB0x 16y ago

daleharvey 16y ago
I cant quite tell from the posts, but with gears they got to experiment with creating new web standards through a plugin, have they tried to do that with this and html5 devices? that would be awesome news.
- yanw 16y ago
  How would you go about accessing the mic and cam with html5?
  - daleharvey 16y ago
    Its very barebones, but http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-device/ http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-device/ is in the works, google could / hopefully have made progress towards making that more solid.
    - patrickaljord 16y ago
      They are working on it but it's still a long way to go. html5-device depends on other standards that don't even exists yet (as you can read on your own link).
      - daleharvey 16y ago
        yeh thats pretty much what I said, thats why I was asking if anyone knew if this work made its way into contributing to the standard?
obsaysditto 16y ago
Tried it out and works very well on first run. Installed the .deb package and restarted Chrome.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
duck 16y ago
Does anyone know why this took so long?
Locke1689 16y ago
Cool. What codecs and streaming protocol do they use?
- stanleydrew 16y ago
  I think everything runs over XMPP just like Google talk.
mjgoins 16y ago
This package installs a cron job that affects how apt functions on your system. You're basically giving google root on your machine.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- macemoneta 16y ago
  Yeah, a closed source application installed as root, with the express purpose of accessing your webcam and microphone. What could go wrong?
  - foenix 16y ago
    Here's the header of the /etc/crontab.daily/google-talkplugin file. I'm not that ninja with my cron-tabbing, but doesn't this do exactly what it says? http://pastebin.com/4etPxNWC http://pastebin.com/4etPxNWC
    - mjgoins 16y ago
      Yes, and it's pretty much harmless in itself, but since when does installing one package (esp. from a third party with no verification beforehand) install a new apt key into your keyring (thus allowing all packages signed by that key, no matter what they are) and reconfigure the package manager itself? It's ludicrous.
      - mkr-hn 16y ago
        It's probably a mistake, and they'll put some prompts and options in once they realize Linux users don't like giving root so freely. They're probably accustomed to trusting their own software with root, so didn't even think about it.
        deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
mgunes 16y ago
Video chat via Google credentials has already been working for some time using the Empathy messaging client, without the need for a dedicated one.
- ZeroGravitas 16y ago
  Unless I'm mistaken it's not a dedicated client. It's a dedicated web plugin that enables video chat within your browser at gmail.com.
mstevens 16y ago
Doesn't work for me - crashes every time I try to start a video call. Problem reported to google, will see what happens.

120 points by SandB0x 16y ago

I cant quite tell from the posts, but with gears they got to experiment with creating new web standards through a plugin, have they tried to do that with this and html5 devices? that would be awesome news.

yanw 16y ago
How would you go about accessing the mic and cam with html5?
- daleharvey 16y ago
  Its very barebones, but http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-device/ http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-device/ is in the works, google could / hopefully have made progress towards making that more solid.
  - patrickaljord 16y ago
    They are working on it but it's still a long way to go. html5-device depends on other standards that don't even exists yet (as you can read on your own link).
    - daleharvey 16y ago
      yeh thats pretty much what I said, thats why I was asking if anyone knew if this work made its way into contributing to the standard?

obsaysditto 16y ago

Tried it out and works very well on first run. Installed the .deb package and restarted Chrome.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

duck 16y ago

Does anyone know why this took so long?

Locke1689 16y ago

Cool. What codecs and streaming protocol do they use?

stanleydrew 16y ago
I think everything runs over XMPP just like Google talk.

mjgoins 16y ago

This package installs a cron job that affects how apt functions on your system. You're basically giving google root on your machine.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
macemoneta 16y ago
Yeah, a closed source application installed as root, with the express purpose of accessing your webcam and microphone. What could go wrong?
- foenix 16y ago
  Here's the header of the /etc/crontab.daily/google-talkplugin file. I'm not that ninja with my cron-tabbing, but doesn't this do exactly what it says? http://pastebin.com/4etPxNWC http://pastebin.com/4etPxNWC
  - mjgoins 16y ago
    Yes, and it's pretty much harmless in itself, but since when does installing one package (esp. from a third party with no verification beforehand) install a new apt key into your keyring (thus allowing all packages signed by that key, no matter what they are) and reconfigure the package manager itself? It's ludicrous.
    - mkr-hn 16y ago
      It's probably a mistake, and they'll put some prompts and options in once they realize Linux users don't like giving root so freely. They're probably accustomed to trusting their own software with root, so didn't even think about it.
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]

mgunes 16y ago

Video chat via Google credentials has already been working for some time using the Empathy messaging client, without the need for a dedicated one.

ZeroGravitas 16y ago
Unless I'm mistaken it's not a dedicated client. It's a dedicated web plugin that enables video chat within your browser at gmail.com.

mstevens 16y ago

Doesn't work for me - crashes every time I try to start a video call. Problem reported to google, will see what happens.