Ubuntu Multimedia :: Sort Videochat To Become A Serious Desktop Player

I'm a huge fan of Linux in general and Ubuntu in particular. But until there is a more user friendly microphone/video experience, Ubuntu has no real hope of achieving significant desktop market share, something I dearly want to see. Every install of Ubuntu I've tried in the past few years has had maddening problems in this area. I've spent hours trawling forums, fiddling with Alsa settings, disabling and re-enabling options, installing various packages, all to no avail.

Buy any Windows based laptop or Mac and the integrated mic and webcam will generally work first time. My other half recently bought a Macbook, and the video experience was completely seamless. I've recently completely ditched Windows, and feel utterly liberated, but I could only do this as I have access to a Mac for videochat. Videochat is not a luxury, it's a must have for most users. I'm aware of some of the various issues behind the problem, but surely Canonical can muster enough geeks to fix sound and video. This sums it up pretty well: Why do No Serious Musicians use Linux?