I've been looking for an open-source replacement to proprietary Skype for video-conferencing. Since Skype v8 isn't building and working correctly on my stable install I'm looking elsewhere, which I probably should have done sooner. I've seen a number of articles that recommend Wire and Jitsi. I have been to both web-sites.

Jitsi: https://jitsi.org/
Jitsi's entrance web site is confusing, since they have Jitsi-Meet and Jitsi-Videobridge, while Jitsi Desktop (for Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android and iOS) is buried under a dropdown titled Jitsi Projects. Go to https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1.../?search=jitsiSlackbuilds.org for the Jitsi Desktop, or use sbopkg, sbotools. I used sbotools and it built and worked fine.
Jitsi Desktop is a frontend. Jitsi-Meet is a P2P and Jitsi-Videobridge is a bridging program on a centralized server(s). Jitsi-Meet also is started on the central server, and it also stays "semi"-connected in order to allow others to join the video-conference. A centralization and intrusion point passed as a feature (:. The only exception might be that the encryption is maintained and the bridge is simply rebroadcasting the stream, maybe... Jitsi SlackBuild is of the 2015 desktop version 2.8 which builds and installs on Slackware stable. Jitsi's latest version 2.10 from 2017 will build but then doesn't connect with your old profile and throws no error codes to figure out why (at least Google XMMP wouldn't connect after upgrade). Jitsi documentation is sparse and you can no longer use the Jitsi XMMP server as it is shut-down. I also saw notes that it isn't compatible with Google's XMMP any longer which might explain the connection problem with latest desktop, probably because Google has it's own videoconferencing with "Hangouts", which runs in Chrome and Chromium. With Jitsi you and those you want to convert must know what you are doing with protocols and new login names. I suspect that some users were on jitsi when it was compatible with Google XMMP, because they already had a google account and you only had to add a Google Talk connection under Accounts then you were good to go. In essence you were using Jitsi as a frontend to Google servers.

Wire https://wire.com/en/
Wire is another video conferencing program along the lines of Skype. Wire is available for Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS. The download is on the home page above. Wire can also be run within a browser. Wire is P2P, no central servers are mentioned, other than to get and register a @username. Wire is built for those who believe their connections are private and should stay private. Wire has a Slackbuild https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/network/wire/ which also works and installs. However, after installation I've been unable to start it without going directly to the link. The KDE menu simply pulls up wire.desktop but will not start it. After starting the program you are presented with the preference screen and a first time login, which is combined with a email confirmation to actually register. Wire is moving over to @usernames rather than emails and it allows you to change that after login as long as the new username is still available.
I found wire very straight forward and simple, very similar to Skype. Like Skype to get others to join you they must have a @username. Because no other family are on Wire yet I'm not able to see if they appear like Skype as on-line.

Wire is using fewer protocols than Jitsi, but that allows it to be more straight forward to non-technical types (for ex. the Windows, Mac, iOS user). I'm going to leave WIRE installed and see if I can get my kids and grand-kids to convert. I also plan to further explore the features, since my grandson really wants to share the desktop for chess games.

Hope I've presented features and installation correctly. If not please post corrections. Also if you experience is different please post here. Cheers BrianA_MN

There's also https://tox.chat/. Voice chat and instant messaging work well (I had some issues with group voice chat on qTox), I haven't tested video.

I am specifically looking for a video-conferencing tool. Slackware already has Pidgin, KDE's Kopete, and Seamonkey's IRC clients included and they work just find. I don't know that qtox even supports video as cleanly and easily as Skype.

Another possibility is Jitsi's web service: https://meet.jit.si/

The advantage is that there's no new software to install, everyone just visits the URL of the room. Might not suit your needs though.

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You have to provide a way to get past the firewalls that almost everyone should have in place by now as well as a way for other people to find you. (I used to work in this field at Nortel Networks.)

The Wikileaks person uses Jitsi to communicate with people. Whatever you feel about him (and for the love of God don't use this thread to do so, pro or con), you can imagine that he takes his communications security pretty seriously.

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You need to edit the desktop file. I did and it works fine now

Change to read

@Gordie, thanks it works. I hadn't had a chance to check what was happening when I was writing the update.
What I actually did was as root open /usr/share/applications/wire.desktop and make the change you suggested PLUS change to icon=/opt/Wine/resources/app/img/wire.png which should also address the Icon for the desktop file. I'll also send this to the slackbuild package maintainer.

I also want to let everyone know that when you are ready to start a video call, all you do is tap the small person image in the lower right and then search for a name and you'll be presented with many matches. In my case there were many Brianxxx numbers.

@Richard Cranium Do you want to correct anything that I've stated about the centralization issue? My understanding is that Wire only sends you the IP connection cached number of the user you wish to conference with and otherwise stays out of the actual connection. Do you know differently?
Your comment about jitsi is a little debatable, only from the aspect that I don't believe Wire has been available as a release for as long as Jitsi and was perhaps not available three years ago when more secure video was being looked for, just maybe.

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Closing as solved, since no comments in last five days.

Did you open a hole in your firewall to let someone in to connect to you? tcp/5061 or tcp/5060?

If you didn't then you are very probably talking to the server where you registered (since most firewalls allow you to create new outbound connections) which in turn knows how to connect the person who wants to talk to you to the pipe you used to get there.

No I didn't open a firewall opening. However, I did run a few quick "ss" and did not see any tcp or udp connection to any remote hosts while WIRE was running and without a connection to another users. Is there another test you'd like me to process to confirm the "no connection" when waiting for one?

Not really, but how do you think the connection is made? (BTW, you don't have connections with UDP; it's a connectionless protocol.) You are going to have to open a hole in your firewall to allow traffic to pass; normally that's done by either

1. You open a port in your firewall to allow traffic in.
2. You set your firewall to allow you to connect out to anywhere you want.

If it's the second one and the person you want to talk to is doing the same, then both of you need to talk to someone who's done the first one and knows how to connect you two together.

If you are running a firewall somewhere, you should check it to see if it allows traffic through 5060 or 5061 (assuming that wire uses SIP).