Sooner (Linux Mint 7), Later (Fedora 11) and Now (ooVoo 2.1)
It looks like Linux Mint will be making their next release, 7 or "Gloria", in the next few days, according to the Linux Mint Blog. This is good news, because the new release is based on Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope", which means you will get OpenOffice 3, and quite a few other nice updates. Of course, there are lots of Mint-specific updates as well, many of which look very nice. I've been running the Release Candidate for a couple of weeks now, and it is very good.
On the other hand, the release of Fedora 11 (Leonidas) has been pushed back at least a week, tentatively to 2 June. The delay is said to be due to resolution of the last few bugs.
Good news - ooVoo has released their version 2.1. My favorite change in this release is the improvement to the sidebar view, allowing changes to video and audio settings. Quite a contrast between ooVoo, which is trying to do its job and stay out of your way, and Skype, which is trying to take over your entire screen, and most of the resources in your computer. Along with this release, ooVoo announced new calling plans, with separate choices for 3-way, 4-way and 6-way video call support, an option to remove advertising for an additional fee of $2/month, and an option to add phone minutes. Gosh, where do I start on that? First, again, a huge contrast with Skype, who are still blundering around with 1-to-1 video only, and mumbling about multi-party video coming "real soon now" (as they have been saying for at least the last two years, to my knowledge - perhaps longer). Second, I like the idea of being able to pay a small fee to get rid of the advertisements. This is the real world, and real companies who have to pay real bills need real money. If you're willing to tolerate adverts, fine, they can get it that way; but if you can't stand them, now you have a way to get rid of them. Finally, they have added a "Quick Tips" window, easy to open and close from the main window and chock full of useful "how-to" links.
jw 26/5/2009
Update: Wow, talk about just getting in under the wire! A few hours after I wrote this, Linux Mint 7 (Gloria) was released.