Skype recently released Skype 2.0 beta for Linux, which includes the ability to make video calls, a feature the Windows and Mac versions have had for some time. I tried the beta on two systems running Ubuntu 7.10 -- my desktop PC with a USB webcam and a MacBook Pro with its onboard iSight webcam -- with mixed results.

Probably the hardest part of using Skype or any other VoIP application as a video phone is finding a webcam that is supported on Linux. As I noted in my review of the Ekiga videophone earlier this year, the Creative Labs Ultra NX works flawlessly.

The Skype beta is available in binary packages for Ubuntu 7.04, Debian Etch, MEPIS, Xandros, CentOS, Fedora Core 6, Fedora 7, OpenSUSE 10+, and Mandriva. Skype is free-as-in-beer, not free-as-in-speech, so no source code is available.

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