Ask HN: What are some open source alternative to Zoom

Check out bigbluebutton [0]. It is open source with tons of features. It however requires specific Ubuntu 16.04 version and can only be installed on that OS. It is not the best fit for very large audiences (say over 200) in one session BUT for that they are working on another load balancing solution recently [1]

I have been using this for our clients (edtech) for a while and with their 2.2 official version, they made it HTML5 only and removed flash. Works really well if you follow all the guidelines and installation instructions.

They also have a bash installer script [2] which literally does everything for you in one single script.

[0] https://docs.bigbluebutton.org

[1] https://github.com/blindsidenetworks/scalelite

[2] https://github.com/bigbluebutton/bbb-install

Re: Ask HN: What are some open source alternative to Zoom

#5

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 3:28 PM UTC

codegeek wrote: post #4

Check out bigbluebutton [0]. It is open source with tons of features. It however requires specific Ubuntu 16.04 version and can only be installed on that OS. It is not the best fit for very large audiences (say over 200) in one session BUT for that they are working on another load balancing solution recently [1] I have been using this for our clients (edtech) for a while and with their 2.2 official version, they made…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What are some open source alternative to Zoom

#6

Post by blohs » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 3:43 PM UTC

codegeek wrote: post #4

Check out bigbluebutton [0]. It is open source with tons of features. It however requires specific Ubuntu 16.04 version and can only be installed on that OS. It is not the best fit for very large audiences (say over 200) in one session BUT for that they are working on another load balancing solution recently [1] I have been using this for our clients (edtech) for a while and with their 2.2 official version, they made…

Do you have first hand experience with BBB?

Re: Ask HN: What are some open source alternative to Zoom

#7

Post by catacombs » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 3:56 PM UTC

blohs wrote: post #3

rvz wrote: post #2

Jitsi? [0] https://jitsi.org

Does anyone has experience using Jitsi here? What are your thoughts?

I have used it, and it works fine.

Re: Ask HN: What are some open source alternative to Zoom

#8

Post by codegeek » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 4:12 PM UTC

blohs wrote: post #6

codegeek wrote: post #4

Check out bigbluebutton [0]. It is open source with tons of features. It however requires specific Ubuntu 16.04 version and can only be installed on that OS. It is not the best fit for very large audiences (say over 200) in one session BUT for that they are working on another load balancing solution recently [1] I have been using this for our clients (edtech) for a while and with their 2.2 official version, they made…

Do you have first hand experience with BBB?

yes I have installed it, ran it, configured it and broken it many times :). Feel free to ask me anything.

Re: Ask HN: What are some open source alternative to Zoom

#9

Post by mikecoles » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 4:43 PM UTC

blohs wrote: post #3

rvz wrote: post #2

Jitsi? [0] https://jitsi.org

Does anyone has experience using Jitsi here? What are your thoughts?

Use it. Love it. Looking to add the call-in feature next.

Re: Ask HN: What are some open source alternative to Zoom

#10

Post by bengale » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 6:33 PM UTC

blohs wrote: post #3

rvz wrote: post #2

Jitsi? [0] https://jitsi.org

Does anyone has experience using Jitsi here? What are your thoughts?

Found it to be pretty unstable compared to zoom, especially when you get more people on it. Trying to convince people to use it is frustrating.