GnomeMeeting.org has released a 1.0 version of its H.323 compatible videoconferencing and VOIP/IP-telephony application, following three years of development. In conjunction with its first major release number, the organization has begun accepting donations. GnomeMeeting 1.0 enables audio and video calls to remote users with H.323 hardware or software, such as Microsoft Netmeeting.

Features in the new release include improvements to the main GUI, address book, preferences window, and video performance. A calls history listing has been added. The configuration assistant has been completely rewritten for simplicity and HIG (Gnome “Human Interface Guidelines”) compliance. Native ALSA support has been added, along with support for audio plug-ins. More details about new features are available at GnomeMeeting.org.

GnomeMeeting requires a soundcard and soundcard drivers capable of full-duplex. It may also require a properly configured firewall and router/gateway (for example, forwarding port 1720). A webcam is optional — “GnomeMeeting is firstly a VoIP software,” according to the Website.

According to the Website, “GnomeMeeting is licensed under the GPL license and as a special exception, you have permission to link or otherwise combine this program with the programs OpenH323 and Pwlib, and distribute the combination, without applying the requirements of the GNU GPL to the OpenH323 program, as long as you do follow the requirements of the GNU GPL for all the rest of the software thus combined.”

OpenH323 and Pwlib are available under the Mozilla Public License.

GnomeMeeting began as Damien Sandras's masters thesis project at the Université Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.