The new Skype for Linux app was released as an alpha version back in July, and it included support support for one-to-one and group voice calls, but no video call support. Video call support was added back in October, but only between Skype for Linux Alpha clients

This changes with the latest Skype 5.0 for Linux, which was promoted from Alpha to Beta. The latest version adds support for one-to-one video calls with Skype for Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac.

`SkypeWeb Plugin for Pidgin` allows communicating with your Skype contacts using the SkypeWeb protocol. Right now, the Pidgin plugin doesn't support voice or video calls.

Developed by Eion Robb, the Skype4Pidgin developer, SkypeWeb Plugin for Pidgin has a major advantage over the old Skype4Pidgin plugin: it doesn't require Skype to run in the background.

Skype Call Recorder is a small Linux utility that lets you record your Skype calls easily. The application can record all Skype audio calls automatically or you can set it to ask before recording a call.

This occurs because Skype is a 32bit application and the GTK2 theme engine (Murrine or Pixmap in most cases) is not installed for 32bit.

By default, in Ubuntu and probably other Linux distributions, if you're playing music in Rhythmbox, Audacious and so on while receiving a call in applications such as Skype, Ekiga Softphone, SFLphone VoIP Client and other VoIP applications, the music continues to play even after answering the call. PulseAudio has a feature that allows pausing or muting the music when receiving a call, but it's not enabled by default, at least in Ubuntu, so here's how to enable it.