I have had bad experience setting up sound input and output with OSS and ALSA earlier. It is not as easy and pleasant as on Mac and Windows.
I am a huge fan of Skype, as the PC to PC call is free and the voice/video quality is excellent. Also because it is cross platform, it is available on iPhone (Skype for iPhone and Fring) and portable devices powered by Windows Mobile or Symbian (e71 using Fring), PSP..., probably more to come.
1 of the most important point to use it is that communications between clients and servers are encrypted by AES without any configuration. So all text and voice chats are secured basically until it reaches PSTN.
For more info:
Why Are Skype Calls encrypted?
Are my Skype calls secure or encrypted?
What type of encryption is used?
Other IMs like Google Talk also offers communication over SSL, but it requires configuration on different client tools like Pidgin, Empathy, InstantBird, Adium or official client. So Skype is still the easiest tool for average crowd.
In fact I switched to Ubuntu from Fedora Core 5 in mid 2006, installed on Dell Latitude D620 which was my working laptop. It went smoothly and I was pretty happy with almost everything except the sound input and output.
I tried to get the built-in mic work in Hardy and Intrepid, but for some reason, I didn't make it. I can hear others talking but they can't hear me because I didn't seem to have the right Sound devices settings for Skype.
After upgrading to 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope in April, I tried to call my wife to test Skype. Holy cow! I found that the Dell Latitude D620 built-in microphone was working with the same Intrepid settings.
Check the settings below, it has been tested and proved to be working on Dell Latitude D620 and D630 with the built-in mic.
Hope this is useful to those who has trouble setting Skype sound devices.
References for Linux sound solutions:
OSS Open Sound System
ALSA Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
PulseAudio
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