I routinely use Skype to videoconference when my wife visits China. I use a
webcam which cost the equivalent of $10 in China. It identifies itself as:
Z-Star Microelectronics Corp. ZC0303 WebCam
Most large cities have clearance outlets which sell this class of webcam for
anywhere from $6 to $12.
I use a headset, microphone and earphones for audio. It cost $14.
In my experience, Cheese is the gold standard in determining whether a webcam
will work. Unless you live to solve esoteric puzzles, if a webcam doesn't work
with Cheese, visit a clearance outlet and pull ten bucks out of your wallet.
Give the other webcam to a nephew who runs Windows.
There is one small factor of V4L and V4L2 which I don't understand. You might
try Googling to get a tutorial, because your webcam might work if you manage to
change from one to the other.
When I run Skype, I enter this command in a Terminal window:
bash -c 'LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype'
I am not running the current version of Ubuntu, so that might not be required
any more.
By the way, Linux uses a completely different approach to drivers than Windows.
I have only installed a printer driver in Linux, parts either work or they
don't. There's a major exception for printers, and a significant exception for
some Wireless network adapters, but usually, Linux has built-in support for most
devices -- and if it's not built-in, you need to be a true propeller-head to get
the device working.