Ask HN: serious alternative to Skype on Linux/OSX/Windows and smartphones?

https://whispersystems.org/ has an excellent pedigree, but it's only voice and text, and only on Android right now (though I've heard an ios version is coming soon...)

Yate does voice/video/xmpp. the Yate-Qt4 client is incredible under linux, and the Windows/Mac ports are awesome as well.

oh yeah, http://yate.ro is the address.

many thanks! It may well be the one.

So, actually one I've discovered, and tried with great success, is Mumble, http://mumble.sourceforge.net/

Jitsi is another option:

https://jitsi.org

If you don't need video then I'd setup a private IRC server.

right, we already use an IRC server over VPN. Definitely the best for chat and logs I agree!