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I'm looking for a VOIP program that fits these following criterion.

  • I can host the server myself via port forwarding.
  • FOSS. Free as in freedom and preferably as in beer.
  • X-platform. It needs to work for Linux (Debian derivatives) and Windows.
  • User friendly via GUI elements. I'm a hacker, but my friends are not.
  • Allows for multiple people in one call.

Is there any such software?

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  • In the bounty notes, when I say "relatively comprehensive list", I mean perhaps ~a dozen of the most popular voip programs / services. Mar 1, 2021 at 22:07
  • My first read of the title caused me to wonder "what's the FOSS X platform?". After rereading it a couple times, I saw the critical dash. ;) Mar 2, 2021 at 3:27

2 Answers 2

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So, you have several options here, depending on if you're "just" looking for VOIP or if you're also looking for Video Chat. I've listed a couple, but there are likely to be MANY more options.

For video chat, I've used Jitsi, which, when checked today (2021-03-02) has a self hosting guide on their Github repository. https://jitsi.github.io/handbook/docs/devops-guide/devops-guide-quickstart

  • [X] Self-hosted with port forwarding
  • [X] FOSS (Apache licensed)
  • [X] Cross-platform (uses a web browser and WebRTC)
  • [X] GUI elements (uses a web browser and WebRTC)
  • [X] Multiple people in one call

Matrix.org uses Jitsi as their embedded Video-Call software. In fact, the commonly suggested Ansible Playbook for deploying Matrix's reference home server also includes Jitsi as an optional install component. Matrix also has text chat, is decentralized and self-hostable. It was recently used to facilitate the online FOSDEM event, and is the chat platform for the Mozilla and KDE communities.

If you only want VOIP, I've used Mumble and it's server component Murmur before. While I've not installed Murmur recently, I know it can be installed as part of the Windows client, so let's check your list of requirements:

  • [X] Self-hosted with port forwarding
  • [X] FOSS (Appears to be BSD licensed? Either way the boilerplate is very small.)
  • [X] Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux from the project, 3rd party Android and iOS clients)
  • [X] GUI elements (totally GUI - no web interface)
  • [X] Multiple people in one call
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  • Mumble looks like it fits the bill. I'll test it out this evening. Thanks for the tip Mar 2, 2021 at 18:07
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You might be interested in NextCloud and it's Talk component.

NextCloud is a collaboration software suite, so it's not exactly a dedicated VOIP service, but with it has web and mobile app support for it's Talk component which can handle voice and video calling.

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