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For those of you not wanting to use the likes of Discord for voice-chat, there’s also Mumble which is a free, open source, low latency, high quality voice chat application. It’s been around for a long time and it just had a big new stable release, the first of the Mumble 1.4.x series and it’s been over two years since the last. At least they didn’t leave us waiting ten years again like the 1.3 release huh?

So what’s new? A lot! Of course there’s plenty of bug fixes, security updates and the usual assortment of smaller thing but a few bigger features were also added into this release.

Highlights include:

  • Markdown support in chat
  • Native support for PipeWire
  • A proper plugin system
  • Stereo decoding and playback support
  • You can set nicknames for users
  • An icon to show restricted channels
  • A new “TalkingUI” overlay for “non-gamers”

There’s plenty more, be sure to check out the release announcement.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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19 comments

Termy Jan 17, 2022
I really wish Discord wasn't so popular with average folks -.-
Schattenspiegel Jan 17, 2022
Purely for voice chat: much better than discord!
Eike Jan 17, 2022
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Purely for voice chat: much better than discord!

Why? I wanted to do voice chat (Valheim with a Windows using friend) lately for the first time (yay!). I was "defaulting" to Discord, but in the end wasn't sure why not to use say Telegram or WhatsApp (latency?) or, well, we were two, good old phone line.
What should we use - and why?
Bumadar Jan 17, 2022
Running it on my synology for a few friends, it's perfect at what it does :)
Schattenspiegel Jan 17, 2022
Purely for voice chat: much better than discord!

Why? I wanted to do voice chat (Valheim with a Windows using friend) lately for the first time (yay!). I was "defaulting" to Discord, but in the end wasn't sure why not to use say Telegram or WhatsApp (latency?) or, well, we were two, good old phone line.
What should we use - and why?
First of all you are free to use whatever floats your boat.
That being said mumble is lightweight and offers better configure-ability for voice quality and microphone filters/thresholds than most of the other options. It is simply more focused on the voice chat aspects.
BielFPs Jan 17, 2022
Any way to easily self hosting a server using mumble?
Cyril Jan 17, 2022
Any way to easily self hosting a server using mumble?

Install the murmur package, modify the config file the way you want it and that's it!
Seriously it's like, nothing is simpler that hosting Mumble server, you don't even need a domain and can use the IP.
Pendragon Jan 17, 2022
looks like no one's built the latest version for any Debian branches..hmmmm

edit: WELP -- was able to follow the instructions and just cloned the git and built it myself :thumbsup:


Last edited by Pendragon on 17 January 2022 at 9:50 pm UTC
aufkrawall Jan 17, 2022
Big fan of RNNoise in Mumble, works much better than Nvidia's crazy proprietary bloat that slows down your GPU.
BielFPs Jan 17, 2022
Install the murmur package
Spoiler, click me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWOExBlqsXg
thanks
officernice Jan 17, 2022
Still #1 for me.
Bogomips Jan 17, 2022
We used mumble and (Mumur) for a very long time now.

At the moment we host the murmur server on a raspberry pi zero with around 15 people. The pi is connected to an ISP modem at a friend's house and it works very well.

The bandwidth used is ridiculously small, the more people you want the more RAM you need and it is basically it…


Last edited by Bogomips on 17 January 2022 at 8:06 pm UTC
pete910 Jan 17, 2022
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Trouble is whilst I agree Mumble is great, Discord wins with gamers with the fact you can pretty much do what a clan needs/wants, Chats/voip/streamimg ect. (Streaming bit needs work though)

It's also easier to do your own server.

Personally used to like team speak.
Cyril Jan 17, 2022
Install the murmur package
Spoiler, click me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWOExBlqsXg
thanks

Ahah dude, as a French, you killed me!
elmapul Jan 17, 2022
pointless if none of my friends gonna use it.
and why would they?
anyway, they are using an browser to render stuff? because not having features like bold support, wtf?
by the UI i think its something like gtk/qt wich will be a waste of time when they try to add more features (reinventing the whell instead of using an browser rendering capabilities).
GustyGhost Jan 18, 2022
I continue to use Mumble as first choice. I like it's simplicity and self-hostability. However, since other gamer chat software have conditioned everyone into expecting a full persistent chat suites, I am exploring using XMPP instead.

Why? I wanted to do voice chat (Valheim with a Windows using friend) lately for the first time (yay!). I was "defaulting" to Discord, but in the end wasn't sure why not to use say Telegram or WhatsApp (latency?) or, well, we were two, good old phone line.

IMO Mumble is voicechat for gamers without any of Discord's data harvesting, advertising, centralization or other anti-features.

It's also easier to do your own server.

No binary is offered to host a server and, in my book, if you can't run it on bare metal you can't run "your own server". I would be much more inclined to call Discord's instances more appropriately as chatrooms.
AzP Jan 18, 2022
Great to see progress! I was one of the users terrorising them on their github bug list to get the 1.3 release out, since the old Qt4 was being EOL on all platforms.
I recently got a friend to use it when playing Minecraft, I think he liked it after the initial problems of getting up and running for the first time with a game and voice chat. He was used to running Zoom.


Last edited by AzP on 18 January 2022 at 10:39 am UTC
pete910 Jan 18, 2022
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No binary is offered to host a server and, in my book, if you can't run it on bare metal you can't run "your own server". I would be much more inclined to call Discord's instances more appropriately as chatrooms.

My point was that for 99.9% of gamers/Clans it's far easier thus why it's so popular.

I like it's simplicity and self-hostability

Just their is the other reason as to why Discord is preferred, Most people don't have a home server. Yes you can use a RPI but I think many forget that most don't have the knowledge or where for all to set up murmur let alone a server.

People forget, 25 odd years ago we would have been seen as super geeks in the eyes of most.
14 Jan 24, 2022
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Big fan of RNNoise in Mumble, works much better than Nvidia's crazy proprietary bloat that slows down your GPU.
Yes. That, and I like the attenuation. When people are talking, the other sound sources (games) go down in volume by 50%.
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