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Free software tools for staying in touch

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Re: Free software tools for staying in touch

#31

Post by tw04 »

pkulak wrote: post #23
tw04 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fundamentally disagree. Webex has been around longer and despite the zoom founder trying to trash it, has been more reliable for me. They just apparently spent their money on building an enterprise-worthy app instead of marketing. https://help.webex.com/en-us/n80v1rcb/Cisco-Webex-Available-...

They say they have a Linux app... but Zoom is available in official repos, Flatpak, the Arch AUR, SUSE community, etc. That's huge for me. I don't really have any interest in blazing a new trail to use a web conferencing app.

There's nothing in the official repos because it's a java plugin on Linux. That being said, it works with OpenJDK:

https://at.projects.genivi.org/wiki/display/TOOL/WebEx+on+Li...

As far as I know that's the only option on Linux.

Re: Free software tools for staying in touch

#34

Post by saagarjha »

yingbo wrote: post #25
thomzane wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Free Software Foundation refers to free as in freedom and not free as in cost.

, while some others refers to free as free in cost. We should respect each other.

In this thread, I think we should use the more relevant definition.

Re: Free software tools for staying in touch

#36

Post by joecot »

deminature wrote: post #2

Jitsi is the primarily recommended alternative video conferencing tool here, which hasn't had anywhere near the security scrutiny that Zoom has had. I'd prefer to use the tool that we understand is moderately secure, though flawed, rather than the tool that is a security unknown. It seems a little much to recommend Jitsi as 'better', when nobody is really sure of that.

Jitsi Meet runs on your own server and lets you videoconference using just your browser and its built in support for WebRTC. That means it gets to leverage the readily available and easily understood security of:

* Traditional Web Servers (Apache 2 or nginx)

* https/ssl

* modern web browsers

Running a videoconference software that just works in your browser over https solves a large majority of security concerns. The video and voice is encrypted over SSL between the clients and the server. It's not end to end encrypted because that's not really possible, but the only place its unencrypted is in your browser and on the server you own and control. If you don't trust Jitsi's ability to password protect rooms, you could put normal http password authentication in front of your jitsi install -- which would break the mobile app but work just fine in your browser.

Lots of the concerns of Zoom's security are resolved by using readily available standards and software instead of depending on proprietary black box solutions that turn out to send encryption keys through china.

EDIT: As kardos notes below the video actually runs over udp on port 10000 so it is not encrypted over https. It looks like video is encrypted[1] but I'm unclear what method it's encrypted.

1. See Security section of Readme https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet

Re: Free software tools for staying in touch

#37

Post by Ididntdothis »

tw04 wrote: post #9
oDot wrote: post #4

Zoom is still the best performing software. Alternatives fail in various ways. I wrote Emergency Remote[0], and for some companies thrown into the situation it is best to use it anyway. They can't handle more trouble during this time. [0] https://www.emergencyremote.com/EmergencyRemote.pdf

I fundamentally disagree. Webex has been around longer and despite the zoom founder trying to trash it, has been more reliable for me. They just apparently spent their money on building an enterprise-worthy app instead of marketing. https://help.webex.com/en-us/n80v1rcb/Cisco-Webex-Available-...

One pattern I see with videoconferencing is that there never is a tool that works for all. WebEx was great for me but a lot of people complained. We had less complaints with Zoom and as of now Teams works best. I don’t expect this to last though.

Re: Free software tools for staying in touch

#38

Post by burnJS »

oDot wrote: post #4

Zoom is still the best performing software. Alternatives fail in various ways. I wrote Emergency Remote[0], and for some companies thrown into the situation it is best to use it anyway. They can't handle more trouble during this time. [0] https://www.emergencyremote.com/EmergencyRemote.pdf

Not for Linux users. The client repeatedly crashes.

Re: Free software tools for staying in touch

#39

Post by burnJS »

tw04 wrote: post #20
throwaway55554 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We use Webex at work and it's pretty reliable. Only issue I can think of off the top of my head is on Windows, Webex will sometimes freeze. Some colleagues have attributed that to certain bluetooth devices. I've personally not had that happen but have been in meetings where it did. Edit: Ok, that took all of 10 seconds to get the first downvote. Seriously?

I would guess your colleagues are onto something. We've got a wide mix of Windows and Mac users and can't say I've heard of anyone reporting problems with freezing.

Ditto.

Re: Free software tools for staying in touch

#40

Post by okprod »

atonse wrote: post #26

Going to put my bias out in the open. My whole career has benefited from Open Source, yet when I see something from the FSF, I automatically assume it's going to be ugly and not user-friendly. Has anyone tried any of these FSF sanctioned tools? I'd love to have my bias be proven wrong.

The FSF doesn't develop the tools listed in the article. Since it's free software, anyone, including you, can help make it prettier and more user-friendly.

But again, the point of the article isn't about which software is free as in cost or easiest to use. It's about taking an ethical stance despite sacrificing things like a pretty UI.

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