[lug] Jitsi, etc.

[Jeffrey S. Haemer]

Folks,

Without any taking any careful notes, I've tried videoconferencing with
these: Google Duo, Facebook's What'sApp, Zoom, Hangouts, Slack, Google Meet.

They all work, and all have slightly different feature sets. Duo's given me
the best picture and voice. I've only used Zoom and Google Meet for group
stuff (and Meet for group stuff only at work).  Some of these require paid
subscriptions for multiple people or screen sharing. Slack, for example,
does good video, but won't let me screen-share without paying them.

Horses for courses.

I have the distinct impression that Google's replacing Hangouts, which does
both chat and video, with single-purpose apps: one for chats, one for
multi-user meetings which includes screen-sharing, one for videocalls. No
idea why.

Apple has a competing product for videocalls that's Apple-only (Facetime).
Facebook has a (laptop-oriented?) multi-user, video-call service, but I'm
not a Facebook guy. I used Skype long ago, but my account's appears to have
been taken over by someone and it's too much trouble to go through to get
it back, given the plethora of alternatives.  I think I tried LogMeIn's
GoToMeeting once and couldn't get it to work from Linux, but that was long
ago. I used Cisco's Webex at work once or twice. I've heard good things
about Microsoft Team, but have no experience.

When I talk to random people, I find that surprisingly many are sticking
with what they have because they don't want to install an app, either
because they're nervous about technology or because their phones or
computers are old and out of space. One said she'd never installed an app
on her smartphone and didn't know how. Another said she'd have to use her
Google or Apple passwords but had no idea what they were. A third has never
owned a smartphone. He only has an old, flip, cellphone.

A BLUG spreadsheet of everyone's collective knowledge about
videocall/videoconferencing would be a good thing.  Anyone have one started?

Also, does anyone know if LogMeIn is ChowMeIn's brother?

On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 8:01 AM Davide Del Vento <davide.del.vento at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> If I hear anything to indicate that any one of the above really works
>> well, I'll give it a try. But "give it a try" (to really determine if
>> it's going to work for the group) is a procedure involving multiple
>> (busy) people for a non-trivial amount of time.
>>
>
> Ditto, that's why I asked...
>
> Plus, I've found that many people are attached to the tool they are using
> (often for no reason) and any request to try something different results in
> a loud cry....
>
> Anybody having compared things side-to-side and willing to share would be
> useful for me too.
>
> Thanks,
> Davide
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-- 
Jeffrey Haemer <jeffrey.haemer at gmail.com>
720-837-8908 [cell], @goyishekop [twitter]
*פרייהייט? דאס איז יאַנג דינען וואָרט!*
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