A while ago I mentioned I was experimenting with Skype Internet telephany…a fancy way of saying calling people from PC to PC. I rapidly grew intolerant of Skype’s determination to run a web browser without my permission (Skype wanted me to “rate” calls, making the moronic assumption that anyone who was connected to the Internet automatically had a browser running - if you didn’t, as I generally don’t, the program would launch Firefox anyway, constituting, IMHO, the equivalent of spyware), so I dumped it.

But still, I have this VoIP telephone I got free-after-rebate from The Computer Geeks, and I hate having any equipment go to waste. So, what to do…

I discovered Gizmo in a Slashdot article, and in playing around with it have been rather impressed. It seems to be pretty sensible about resources, it does not use a proprietary protocol but instead the SIP protocol, and although not open-source is at least less proprietary and “secret” than Skype (which has internal coding designed to thwart anyone attempting to reverse-engineer the protocols).

Unlike Skype, Gizmo includes voicemail in its free VoIP system, and the obligatory IM system is built-in, too.

So at the risk of having people who strongly disagree with something I say call and give me the what-for, I’m including here a button…if I’m not at my desk, feel free to leave a voicemail. Yes, you need Gizmo, a mic, and speakers (a headset or VoIP phone works better, they tell me), but if you’re using Skype, you owe it to yourself to at least take a look at Gizmo.