Since the journal is called "Windows to Debian", I should talk a bit about the operating system that marks the beginning of the journey.

I am wary of backtracking to Microsoft, and I fully intend to remain 100% Debian, with no dual booting. That said, I still have access to Windows computers at work, and my wife brings home a Windows XP laptop. So today, I used Windows to make an international video call.

I called my dad. We both ran Skype 2.0 with video calling. We both ran Windows. I had a Logitech Quickcam Zoom. My dad had no webcam.

I have no conception of the pain I would have had to go through to attain anything of comparable quality had I tried this on Debian. First: Skype 2.0 is not, as of today, released for any Linux distribution. So, I would have had to use Ekiga (previously called GnomeMeeting) to attempt to connect with video to my dad's computer. I would have had to tell my dad to use MSN Messenger, because MSN Messenger uses an open protocol to which Ekiga can connect, whereas Skype uses a closed protocol to which nobody can connect.

That's not so bad, but as of today, Ekiga's video support has not been released. I would have had to download the source code and build it myself. This is not impossible: as a student, and as a hobbyist, I've compiled source code, but I still don't quite understand how to do it properly on Debian.

Third, readers of this journal will know that I still haven't gotten my webcam working on Debian. Most of the articles that I have found about webcams on Debian begin with a sentence like: "Installing a webcam on Debian is one of the hardest things you will ever do."

So, in order to just make a video connection I would have had to figure out how to compile the source code for Ekiga, and then complete what is called "the hardest thing you will ever do on Debian". And then, would I have gotten a good quality video connection?

Because the connection we got between me and my dad was superb. Perfect voice quality, and he could see with clarity everything I pointed the webcam at. And all it took was plugging my webcam into the laptop. When I called my dad, Skype showed him the image automatically.

I do believe that I can match this experience with Debian, but I am not convinced that the effort and time I put in will equal the ease with which it worked on Windows. In this case, having Windows, in comparison to what Debian has made me suffer lately, was an absolute breath of fresh air.

Update: oops, Ekiga was released in beta with video support on January 16th. I had been eagerly checking the site for announcements, but had somehow missed that. What's more, Ekiga claims to have had video support since 2001. I think the issue is greater than this, though. If what the Ekiga site says is true, then I should have already been able to perform a video chat by now. But I have not been able to, and really, the only thing stopping me was lack of documentation.

I consider this a half-point for Debian. I appreciate the rapidity with which Ekiga was released after Skype 2.0, but it still doesn't solve my webcam problem, nor does it really clarify why I couldn't use Ekiga for video chat before.