Google has added Linux support to its online audio and video chat.
Via a Google Talk plugin, voice and video chat has been introduced in Gmail (as iGoogle and orkut) in November 2008 and the Windows and Mac OS X. The operating system of the penguin was therefore an exception at the launch. A little less than two years later, voice and video chat is possible on Linux.
This port was one of the most frequent requests made by Linux users who are fond of Gmail. Nearly two years of waiting, it seems so very long. But as the technical manager of real-time communications at Google, this operation has requested a major engineering effort to develop a new solution for video rendering and audio processing based on PulseAudio.
To "help get the pill, Justin Uberti stresses also work to support the 64-bit and compatibility tests with many webcams. Still, all Linux users will not be immediately satisfied. For now, the port is only effective for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions based on Debian. RPM packages will be offered shortly.
