I am curious about a few things and i did a little looking around at some of the sites people have suggested my the webcams they have there are not that good i need a webcam with a high CCD sensor for poor lighting enviroments and because they are the best webcams to get for the money you will spend.

There is the logitech quickcam 4000 pro but the drivers i found for that one don't work after compiling them my usb pci card and my network card failed on start up.

It is getting a little frustrating now seeing how i will more than likely have to use windows to webcam with my friends and family and i hate using that god awful operating system so much.

Can we consider video conferencing a weak link in Linux seeing how we do lack proper drivers for up to date webcams that have high quality CCD sensors like Creative labs pc-cam 600, pc-cam 750 and logitech quickcam 4000 pro .

And by the way i am running redhat 8.0

Most video devices bt878/848 work very well in Linux indeed. And I don't consider it a 'weak pont' in Linux but rather a soft spot in the pointy heads of some hardware manufactuers. Drivers are devolped eitehr by referencing published standards & whitepapers (with co-operation from vendors), by the manufacturer themselves, or by hacking and poking at it. If video conferencing is somewhat lacking in Linux it's probably due to the fact that it's only recently that vendors have shown any real support for development. In the recent past you could say the environment was downright hostile. Drivers and links to camera applications can be found here. As well I tripped over this thread possibly regarding your particular hardware. If you have some more specific questions regarding your setup post them at LQ.


ps. I have not purchased a Logitech product since 1999.

Well if logitech isn't the way what is the way?

I've had no problems with USB QuickCams and Linux myself. Of course you need V4L support in your kernel but if that's compiled in, no problem.

Bert

V4L support? What is that and how do I know if I have it?

Well this the thing i am still new at this and i never compiled a module before is there some type of documentation on compiling the pwc.8.8.tar.gz which is required for the logitech quickcam 4000 pro to work under redhat 8.0?

If someone has done it before i would really appreciate a little help in the matter so that i don't ruin my webcam.

V4L: Video for linux. It needs to be compiled into your kernel. You can test if you have it by doing:

whereis v4l-conf

Bert

Damn, I'd go stir crazy without my Logitech Trackball(s)!

As for the webcams, become an advocate and send an intelligent email to any hardware vendors not supporting Linux asking about time frames for support of the devices you want to use. Who knows you could get a reply like, "We are working on that due to customer demand and it will be out by the end of this quarter."