My kids have been using the Zoom plugin on Chrome on the chromebook so it'll work on linux. On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 8:14 PM Chuck Anderson via WLUG <wlug@lists.wlug.org> wrote:

On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 07:48:12PM -0400, Michael Voorhis via WLUG wrote:

...

Does viable free videoconferencing software exist?

Jitsi has been mentioned here before. I haven't looked into it:

https://stackshare.io/stackups/jitsi-vs-zoom _______________________________________________ WLUG mailing list -- wlug@lists.wlug.org To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave@lists.wlug.org Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ Change Settings: https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ Web Forum/Archive: https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/KS3FXT...

-- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Zoom is a good option if using a Pro subscription. Lots of businesses seem to depend on it for remote meetings thanks to the pandemic. It has some nice features like video recording which could be used for sharing on Youtube, and it doesn't require new users to create an account for meetups. I think Discord is also a good option with all of the features it provides as a chat platform. I've been using it for remote D&D sessions. One major downside of the Linux client is that you'll likely have to use a workaround for a bug that causes video calls to eventually crash the client: https://github.com/flathub/com.discordapp.Discord/issues/30 I've been using a Gnome Shell extension to fix this: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/615/appindicator-support/ - Josh On Wed, 2020-03-25 at 13:46 +0000, Krichevsky, Nicholas J. via WLUG wrote:

Zoom, aside from not being FOSS, limits calls to 40 minutes without paying. If we only care about free as in beer Discord is a great option, but if we care about free in the other sense, then I'm not sure I know if anything.

Get Outlook for Android

From: Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug@lists.wlug.org>

Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 9:44:41 AM

To: Worcester Linux Users' Group General Discussion < wlug@lists.wlug.org>

Cc: Anderson, Charles R <cra@wpi.edu>; Tim Keller <turbofx@gmail.com>

Subject: [EXT] [WLUG] Re: [EXT] Free, viable videoconferencing ?

My kids have been using the Zoom plugin on Chrome on the chromebook so it'll work on linux.

On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 8:14 PM Chuck Anderson via WLUG < wlug@lists.wlug.org> wrote:

...

On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 07:48:12PM -0400, Michael Voorhis via WLUG wrote:

...

Does viable free videoconferencing software exist?

Jitsi has been mentioned here before. I haven't looked into it:

https://stackshare.io/stackups/jitsi-vs-zoom

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How much do you care about it being *VIDEO* by the way? If it's not important, there's always Mumble... Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/ghei36> ________________________________ From: Michael Voorhis via WLUG <wlug@lists.wlug.org> Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 10:53:52 AM To: Worcester Linux Users' Group General Discussion <wlug@lists.wlug.org> Cc: Voorhis, Michael C <mvoorhis@wpi.edu>; Joshua Stone <joshua.gage.stone@gmail.com> Subject: [EXT] [WLUG] Re: Free, viable videoconferencing ? On 3/25/20 10:38 AM, Joshua Stone via WLUG wrote:

Zoom is a good option if using a Pro subscription.

We're digressing a bit from the discussion-topic which is *free* videoconferencing. My email was in retrospect ambiguous; I made assumptions based on the listenership of my email. I was asking about FOSS videoconferencing. Jitsi appears to be the only answer at this point. Thanks all, --MCV. _______________________________________________ WLUG mailing list -- wlug@lists.wlug.org To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave@lists.wlug.org Create Account: https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwlug.mailm... Change Settings: https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwlug.mailm... Web Forum/Archive: https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwlug.mailm...

I know it's been mentioned, but wanted to point to two instances of it I use frequently and offer some additional feedback. There's the "premier" one, which is at https://meet.jit.si/ and is very often running the very latest version. The Mayfirst COOP also hosts an instance at https://meet.mayfirst.org/ This doesn't tend to be upgraded quite so frequently, so unless it lands on a poor version, it's a great one to use. Usually "just works" on phone/desktop fine. It can be a little glitchy, and has not often performed very well for my coop more than about 10 participants or so. Desktop sharing, video, audio, and chat as well as other features all function well on GNU/Linux save for some difficulty I had with Sway WM/Wayland (which may well have been my shortcoming). I'm not sure how dependent the limits we've seen are dependent upon the infrastructure available, but I'm told it's not terribly difficult to deploy an instance, but have yet to try myself. FWIW, nearly every time, a quick page refresh (or two) for whomever is having issues gets things working. TBH, it's best to have a backup connection when using Jitsi (i.e. text msg, etherpad, or IRC or whatever), or else to work with more experienced users - e.g. those that will notice a message/open the chat pane to read that they cannot be heard and to either un-mute or else refresh their page. --Chris On 3/25/20 11:53 AM, Bradley Noyes via WLUG wrote:

I have never used this software, but apparently nextcloud can do some kind of video conferencing with their package call “spreed"

https://github.com/nextcloud/spreed

...

On Mar 25, 2020, at 10:55, Krichevsky, Nicholas J. via WLUG <wlug@lists.wlug.org <mailto:wlug@lists.wlug.org>> wrote:

How much do you care about it being *VIDEO* by the way? If it's not important, there's always Mumble...

Get Outlook for Android <https://aka.ms/ghei36> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *From:* Michael Voorhis via WLUG <wlug@lists.wlug.org <mailto:wlug@lists.wlug.org>> *Sent:* Wednesday, March 25, 2020 10:53:52 AM *To:* Worcester Linux Users' Group General Discussion <wlug@lists.wlug.org <mailto:wlug@lists.wlug.org>> *Cc:* Voorhis, Michael C <mvoorhis@wpi.edu <mailto:mvoorhis@wpi.edu>>; Joshua Stone <joshua.gage.stone@gmail.com <mailto:joshua.gage.stone@gmail.com>> *Subject:* [EXT] [WLUG] Re: Free, viable videoconferencing ?   On 3/25/20 10:38 AM, Joshua Stone via WLUG wrote:

...

Zoom is a good option if using a Pro subscription.

We're digressing a bit from the discussion-topic which is *free* videoconferencing.  My email was in retrospect ambiguous; I made assumptions based on the listenership of my email.

I was asking about FOSS videoconferencing.  Jitsi appears to be the only answer at this point.

Thanks all,

--MCV. _______________________________________________ WLUG mailing list -- wlug@lists.wlug.org <mailto:wlug@lists.wlug.org> To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave@lists.wlug.org <mailto:wlug-leave@lists.wlug.org> Create Account: https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwlug.mailm... Change Settings: https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwlug.mailm... Web Forum/Archive: https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwlug.mailm... _______________________________________________ WLUG mailing list -- wlug@lists.wlug.org <mailto:wlug@lists.wlug.org> To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave@lists.wlug.org <mailto:wlug-leave@lists.wlug.org> Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ Change Settings: https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ Web Forum/Archive: https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/4ER6XN...

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I've recently learned about BigBlueButton, which is designed around teaching with features like slideshow integration and session recordings (currently disabled due to increased demand though). I think this could work well for us seeing as we tend to do presentations hosted our own computers anyway. This demo looks quite promising: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hso8yLzkqj8 BBB and other communication solutions endorsed as being FOSS-friendly are listed here as well: https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Remote_Communication -Josh On Thu, 2020-04-02 at 14:05 +0000, Krichevsky, Nicholas J. via WLUG wrote:

So this isn't free "as in beer" but I just saw https://wire.com/en/ mentioned on HackerNews today. Source code is GPL3, but it looks like they handle the hosting for 4 euro/user/month. They mention in their FAQ that you can self-host, but it sounds like you still have to pay to do that. Not sure if they have a guide to just run it yourself but I'm sure you can... you have the source...

The most secure collaboration platform · Wire

Wire is actively leading the work on extending its security standards to become the norm for protecting organizations' digital assets. Messaging Layer Security (MLS) is a new protocol designed to firm up the security of enterprise messaging platforms by employing end-to-end encryption within group communication.

wire.com

From: Chris Thompson via WLUG <wlug@lists.wlug.org>

Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 1:34 PM

To: wlug@lists.wlug.org <wlug@lists.wlug.org>

Cc: Chris Thompson <wolcen@riseup.net>

Subject: [EXT] [WLUG] Re: [EXT] Re: Free, viable videoconferencing ?

I know it's been mentioned, but wanted to point to two instances of it I use frequently and offer some additional feedback. There's the "premier" one, which is at

https://meet.jit.si/ and is very often running the very latest version. The Mayfirst COOP also hosts an instance at

https://meet.mayfirst.org/ This doesn't tend to be upgraded quite so frequently, so unless it lands on a poor version, it's a great one to use.

Usually "just works" on phone/desktop fine. It can be a little glitchy, and has not often performed very well for my coop more than about 10 participants or so. Desktop sharing, video, audio, and chat as well as other features all function well on GNU/Linux save for some difficulty I had with Sway WM/Wayland (which may well have been my shortcoming). I'm not sure how dependent the limits we've seen are dependent upon the infrastructure available, but I'm told it's not terribly difficult to deploy an instance, but have yet to try myself.

FWIW, nearly every time, a quick page refresh (or two) for whomever is having issues gets things working. TBH, it's best to have a backup connection when using Jitsi (i.e. text msg, etherpad, or IRC or whatever), or else to work with more experienced users - e.g. those that will notice a message/open the chat pane to read that they cannot be heard and to either un-mute or else refresh their page. --Chris

On 3/25/20 11:53 AM, Bradley Noyes via WLUG wrote:

...

I have never used this software, but apparently nextcloud can do some kind of video conferencing with their package call “spreed"

https://github.com/nextcloud/spreed

...

On Mar 25, 2020, at 10:55, Krichevsky, Nicholas J. via WLUG < wlug@lists.wlug.org> wrote:

How much do you care about it being *VIDEO* by the way? If it's not important, there's always Mumble...

Get Outlook for Android

From: Michael Voorhis via WLUG <wlug@lists.wlug.org>

Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 10:53:52 AM

To: Worcester Linux Users' Group General Discussion < wlug@lists.wlug.org>

Cc: Voorhis, Michael C <mvoorhis@wpi.edu>; Joshua Stone < joshua.gage.stone@gmail.com>

Subject: [EXT] [WLUG] Re: Free, viable videoconferencing ?

On 3/25/20 10:38 AM, Joshua Stone via WLUG wrote:

...

Zoom is a good option if using a Pro subscription.

We're digressing a bit from the discussion-topic which is *free*

videoconferencing. My email was in retrospect ambiguous; I made

assumptions based on the listenership of my email.

I was asking about FOSS videoconferencing. Jitsi appears to be the only

answer at this point.

Thanks all,

--MCV.

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