Hi, everyone. I really don't know how to explain this, but I really like to have my netbook be like a Cisco SPA502G, Cisco SPA525G, or any kind of business phone that's available. The current phone system I have is Asterisk.

One of the advantage of having my netbook is that it has a battery and most desktop IP phones do not have one.

So, aren't there any Linux distros that act primarily as a "phone first; everything last?" (By "everything last," I meant anything like surfing the Internet, listen to music, etc." It's like having an advanced version of an SPA525G or a top-of-the-line Snom/Polycom business phone.

I know this is way too much to ask about making my netbook act as a dedicated business phone, since I'll only be using one line per device. Like I mentioned, it's nice to be able to take my netbook with me whenever I go where there are wireless networks available, such as in college or a restaurant. Of course, I'll probably not expect to get a lot of features from Cisco SPA502G in a softphone.

I can understand why anyone cannot imagine why I'd want to have so many features from SIP-based business phones, like intercom and G.722 codec ("high-definition voice," or "HD Voice"). Well, I'm a hobbyist; sometimes I like to put some of the features to use, like an intercom.

I used to try out Ekiga (supports G.722) and Twinkle (does not support G.722 as far as I've read), but I'd like to have something that integrates into the desktop environment--no, not the little icon that sits in a GNOME panel, but maybe a softphone that is docked to the right of the desktop with a resolution of 1024x600. This is something that is very useful to keep the softphone integrated into the panel while not overlapping with other non-softphone applications, such as Firefox or OpenOffice. Plus, the panel-based softphone can stay visible regardless of which application has focus, even if I maximize an application.

Isn't this possible with Linux?

P.S.: I'm using Ubuntu Linux 10.04 if that helps.

Hi,

I am one of the developper of SFLPhone, we support many codecs, if the one your using is missing, just ask on the mailing list. We provide support for:

-multiple simultanious calls,
-call merging for conference calls
-recording
-contact integration in KDE and Gnome
-Frontend for Plasma, Maemo, KDE and Gnome,
-Support for multiple account (including sharing calls between accounts for conferences)
-D-Bus API for scripted call
-enterprise support
-video (experimental, including hybrid phone+video conferences)
-browsable history
-voicemail
.... much more. All is GPLv3

Our main target are users like you, who want enterprise grade solution as a replacement for RJ45 SIP/IAX phones. Ubuntu 10.04 is the most tested platform, so you should not have problem installing and using it. A PPA is available for up to date packages.

http://www.sflphone.org

Does it really support intercom/paging?

Well, if it is activated by dialing a code, then it is Asterix job to handle it. I don't think any dev still use pagers so it probably have never been tried, but it does not mean it does not work, it depend how it handled by Asterix. If you have one, then you could try and report if it work or not. If it don't, just fill a bug (because it is a bug).

Okay. I'm completely brand new to mailing lists and it'll take me a while to get comfortable with it, so I have a question. When will I expect to see my post in the mailing list? I'm used to forums for like about 10 years, as it's been a very long time.