Instant Messaging
Dino XMPP Client
Dino is a modern open-source chat client for the desktop. It focuses on providing a clean and reliable Jabber/XMPP experience while having your privacy in mind.
Dino is secure by default: Your chats never leave your computer unencrypted. Once you enabled end-to-end encryption via OMEMO or OpenPGP, only you and your chat partners can read your messages, but not your server administrator or anyone else.
If you want to increase your privacy, Dino allows you to disable read and typing notifications – globally or only for specific contacts.
Dino is built on the XMPP protocol, an internet standard for decentralized communication – the instant messaging pendant to email.
Decentralization means you don’t have to rely on a single provider or company, instead you can use a federated world-wide infrastructure. You can even host your own server!
Installation
$ sudo apt install dino-im
Signal Messenger
Signal is a cross-platform encrypted messaging service developed by the Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger LLC. It uses the Internet to send one-to-one and group messages, which can include files, voice notes, images and videos. Its mobile apps can also make one-to-one voice and video calls, and the Android version can optionally function as an SMS app.
Signal uses standard cellular telephone numbers as identifiers and uses end-to-end encryption to secure all communications to other Signal users. The apps include mechanisms by which users can independently verify the identity of their contacts and the integrity of the data channel.
All Signal software is free and open-source. The clients are published under the GPLv3 license, while the server code is published under the AGPLv3 license. The non-profit Signal Foundation was launched in February 2018 with an initial funding of $50 million.
Installation
$ curl -s https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | sudo apt-key add -
$ echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop
Jitsi Video Conferencing
Jitsi is a collection of free and open-source multiplatform voice (VoIP), videoconferencing and instant messaging applications for the web platform, Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS and Android.
The Jitsi project began with the Jitsi Desktop (previously known as SIP Communicator). With the growth of WebRTC, the project team focus shifted to the Jitsi Video Bridge for allowing web-based multi-party video calling.
Later the team added Jitsi Meet, a full video conferencing application that includes web, Android, and iOS clients.
Jitsi also operates meet.jit.si, a version of Jitsi Meet hosted by Jitsi for free community use.
Browser Access
You can start your own conference or join any other one without installing any software on your desktop computer.
Just point your browser to a public servers website and allow access to your camera and microphone.
However Jitsi recommends using the Chromium browser.
As of spring 2020, Firefox is not supported.
Installation
If you prefer to have an installed client there is a AppImage
Trusting the software publisher:
$ sudo apt-key adv --fetch-keys https://download.jitsi.org/jitsi-key.gpg.key
Adding the repository:
$ echo 'deb https://download.jitsi.org stable/' | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jitsi-stable.list
$ sudo apt update
Install the package:
$ sudo apt install
Public Servers
A list of public accessible servers is available here:
https://jitsi.github.io/handbook/docs/community/community-instances/