DarkSarin writes "Given that solutions like iChat can seamlessly video-conference for collective parties on the Mac, and that others are semi-commercial, like Oovoo (which lately left beta and is no longer free for more than 3-way calls), what do you recommend in terms of a F/OSS solution to a need for moderate-sized video-conferencing? Ideally, it would be existence which does not use a web-page and does not require hours of configuration. iChat is insanely easy to use. Mebeam.com is also quite simple to operate, but requires so much screen real estate that it can't easily be used in conjunction with any other software. connected with to other details while in the middle of the conversation is nice, but it's important to have the reactions of the other nominees — and not everyone has assorted monitors. I am aware of projects like vmukti and community service like ustream.tv, but I am headwork more in terms of a stand-alone form that is F/OSS (Ekiga/GnomeMeeting comes to mind, but it does not do multi-point video chat unless one also has access to an H.323 gateway, which is seemingly non-trivial to implement). With the prevalence of broadband connections, I am confused that a solid effort is missing for making easy, painless multi-point video-conferencing for more than 3 or 4 fix (which seems to be the most that a lot of 'free' solutions offer, or even the low-cost ones). So, my question is two-fold: First, why isn't there a better effort at medium to large video-conferencing that pretty much anyone can set up? Second, do you know of any F/OSS applications which work well and support a minimum of 6 to 8 connected parties?"

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