The Definitive Guide to VoIP for Linux Users

Posted in Voipnow.org

                Have you tried lately to figure out which Linux operating system you’d like to use? And, did you think about adding a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) device to that Linux system? We can guess that you probably overwhelmed with the choices available to VoIP users today. In fact, to write a truly definitive guide to VoIP for Linux users, we would need to write a book.

Instead, we combed the online Linux and VoIP Wikis to find the most-used combinations of Linux and VoIP according to the systems and devices that were most talked about on these support and documentation pages. Those choices, listed below along with their Wikis, will provide you with a definitive guide to choices available, and to the choices that provide the most documentation for ease of use.

Although the lists below are numbered and in alphabetical order, this does not mean that any product or resource is more valuable than another.

Linux Distributions

The following list contains all the Linux resources you might ponder before you make a choice on which open source product that provides a friendly connection with your VoIP applications. Be sure to read through various VoIP applications and tutorials (also listed below) to learn more about how compatible each operating system might be with a particular VoIP application.

1. CentOS: CentOS 2, 3, 4 and 5 are Red Hat clones, built from publicly available open source SRPMS provided by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor. CentOS conforms fully with the upstream vendors redistribution policies and aims to be 100 percent binary compatible. CentOS users as a group are a community of open source contributors and users. Typical CentOS users are organizations and individuals that do not need strong commercial support in order to achieve successful operation.
2. Debian: Debian is a free operating system (OS) for your computer. Debian uses the Linux kernel (the core of an operating system), but most of the basic OS tools come from the GNU project; hence the name GNU/Linux.
3. Fedora: Fedora is an RPM-based, general purpose Linux distribution, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat. Fedora’s mission statement is: “Fedora is about the rapid progress of Free and Open Source software.”
4. Gentoo Linux: Gentoo is a free operating system based on either Linux or FreeBSD that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Thanks to a technology called Portage, Gentoo can become an ideal secure server, development workstation, professional desktop, gaming system, embedded solution or whatever you need it to be. Becaus of its near-unlimited adaptability, Gentoo calls its product a “metadistribution.”
5. Pie Box: Pie Box enterprise Linux edition is derived from open source software and is another Red Hat clone. As such, it is fully compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Pie Box enterprise Linux edition and their subscriptions are not free, but the cost (which is well below propreitory operating systems) includes a support contract.
6. Red Hat: Red Hat is the world’s most trusted provider of Linux and open source technology. Red Hat operates on a subscription model that allows them to develop and deliver technology, provide unlimited support over the life of an agreement, and to create an actual relationship between the copany and the customer. They offer private and enterprise solutions.
7. Slackware: The Official Release of Slackware Linux by Patrick Volkerding is an advanced Linux operating system that is designed with the twin goals of ease of use and stability as top priorities. Since its first release in April of 1993, the Slackware Linux Project has aimed at producing the most “UNIX-like” Linux distribution available. Slackware Linux is a complete 32-bit multitasking system, currently based around the 2.4 Linux kernel series and the GNU C Library version 2.3.4 (libc6).
8. SUSE: SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell is an enterprise-grade Linux system that delivers a complete open source platform for mission-critical applications. Novell provides a Linux solution with built-in virtualization, security and management tools, or a Linux solution that works with Microsoft Windows.
9. Tao Linux: Tao Linux is a project to build a free Linux distribution from the sources used in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux product line. The target market is either experienced system administrators who would like freely available binaries of this code, or end users who are interested in experimenting with enterprise functionality. Besides being mostly compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, it also includes software packages such as Eclipse and clustering tools not found in the base RHEL products.
10. Ubuntu: Probably the most user-friendly of all Linux-based operating systems, Ubuntu contains all the applications you need - a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more. Ubuntu works with Skype, Asterisk and other VoIP applications, but word is that it works best with Ekiga (listed below under VoIP applications). Kubuntu is the KDE equivalent to Ubuntu, and it comes with its own out-of-the-box VoIP application, KubuntuVOIPSOlution.
11. Whitebox: This product is yet another Red Hat clone, forked from the source code for Red Hat’s “Red Hat Enterprise Linux” products under the terms and conditions of its EULA. The goal is to provide an unencumbered RPM based Linux distribution that retains enough compatibility with Red Hat Linux to allow easy upgrades and to retain compatibility with their Errata srpms. Being based off of RHEL3 means that a machine should be able to avoid the upgrade treadmill until Oct 2008 since RHEL promises Errata availability for five years from date of initial release and RHEL3 shipped in Oct 2003.
12. Yellow Dog Linux: Terra Soft has developed an open source Linux operating system for home, office, server, and cluster users. Built upon the Fedora Core, YDL has since been developed for the Power architecture family of CPUs. This development has led to YDL’s reputation as a lead Linux source for Power OS.
    
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