I suppose this is the best place to put this, please move it if needs be.

I've been having problems using Skype/Facebook messenger for voice calls and I'm interested to see how peoples' experiences have differed regarding what distro and client they use.

For instance, I've tried calling a colleague from desktop browser Skype [from Debian/Chromium] to iphone Skype and it was very poor call quality.

I've tried using FB client [Slackware] to FB iphone voice call and it didn't collect [it just said "X is unreachable"]

However, I've tried desktop FB client [Slackware] to desktop FB client and the call was perfectly clear.

Please do not reply with "works fine for me in distro X" since this is not that helpful.

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I'm interested to see:

what distro you use with what clients and what success have you had in getting your calls connected from your Linux device.

e.g. have you used desktop client Skype to calling someone's iphone Skype and had success or no success?
have you used browser Skype to someone's desktop client Skype and had success/no success?
have you used FB client to FB iphone and had success/no success?

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This was a problem for me even when using Windows but I really need to get it working well in Linux.

There are so many different clients and platforms I'm not surprised I'm running into problems.

For now I know that client-client for FB works great from Slackware. I may do a series of experiments in the future so I know exactly what works and what doesn't work.

Corollary: if anyone is willing to be part of a guinea-pig experiment to try what different distros work with different clients/platforms/phones I'd be willing to do so. However I do not use a smartphone myself and would only be calling from desktop Linux clients or web browsers. Of course I could call a smartphone as part of the experiment. This wouldn't just entail trying out calling Linux but Windows/Mac too.

The problems with skype are all due to the connection itself. It's not distro dependent at all. If the path through the Internet between you and your target is good, you'll get a good connection. If It's bad, both sides will attempt to resend data (digitized voice) again and again until it is successfully received.

If you're going through a lot of routers at a busy time, it probably won't work as well as if you're going through only a few routers at an off-peak time. There are a bunch of sites that show skype status. Here's one: http://downdetector.com/status/skype/map/

1 members found this post helpful.

I use Skype occasionally to talk with my daughters and, once I've made a successful test call after a reboot, have not had any issues with it.

I wouldn't use Facebook Messenger on a bet. I avoid the Zuckerborg as much as I can.

Very interesting and useful, thank you. I think I'll still run a couple of tests but it's good to know that it's not distro-dependent but network [and obviously client for FB] dependent.