Comparison of zoom and jitsi request

[Karl Auer]

On Thu, 2023-08-17 at 07:01 +0800, Bret Busby wrote:
> I am wondering whether anyone on this list, has used and compared
> jitsi, relative to zoom.

Jitsi is excellent and very simple to use. It's browser-based, so works
on anything with a browser that is reasonably modern. I've personally
used it or seen it used on Mac, Linux and Windows. There are clients,
but they are not really needed.

I haven't used it in meetings with more than five or six people. It was
fine with that many. I don't know how it handles larger meetings.

There is a central Jitsi meeting server you can use, so you don't have
to do much to get a meeting up, and anyone can do so. There is also
free and open-source installable server software, so you can self-host
it if you want to. And you can also buy "Jitsi as a Service" from the
Jitsi people.

Meetings are identified by a randomly-generated string, or you can give
your meeting a name of your choice. Just get that string to your
participants.

It is very straightforward, and it is just videoconferencing. Or audio
if you turn your camera off :-) It doesn't have some of the bells and
whistles that Zoom and Meet have, though it will probably get more over
time. It also has a limit of 100 participants last I looked, so not
useful for a really large-scale webinar. End to end encryption is still
flagged as experimental.

But it doesn't track you, doesn't claim to own all your data, is
completely free, and there are no annoying meeting time limits.
Compared to Zoom, Meet and especially compared to Teams, it has a very
small footprint, starts fast and plays nice.

When searching the web about Jitsi, pay attention to when comments were
made; Jitsi has changed a lot over the years. It would be simplest and
best to just try it out (did I mention it's free?)

Regards, K.

PS: The Ubuntu packages are confusingly named and some relate to
running a Jitsi server. There is a desktop client package called jitsi-
meet-electron, or just use a browser.

PPS: You and I are both in Oz, albeit with a two-hour time difference.
If you want to play, send me a Jitsi meeting ID :-) I'm on ADSL, so you
will get a fair idea of what it's like using Jitsi on slower links,
too.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer