You are not limited to Ekiga. There is Wengophone or openWengo, SipPhone and
Gizmo5 with OpenSky(pe) which is free and built on open source, but for
profit.

Linux is a whole new world of free (as in freedom) software. Skype is not
part of it. Although it can be made to work, it is still foreign territory.
So you have to decide what you want and what you are willing to put up with
to get it.

This is the whole conundrum that Windows users face when they try Linux. Do
they want proprietary or do they want something that is as good or better,
but is incompatible with what most users are used to? Most Linux users would
not bother with Skype because their friends are either not Windows users and
Linux users don't use Skype or they have found other solutions.

The reason why open source works in your favour and proprietary doesn't is
that open source developers can fix problems if they have access to the
code. In this case they don't.

Convince your friends to go open source and your problem is solved. If I
sound unsympathetic then you can guess that this is probably what most Linux
users feel about proprietary solutions vs. open source.