[sf-lug] (forw) Jitsi Meet client software choices

[Rick Moen]

Options for Jitsi Meet client software.

----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Sun, 20 Sep 2020 13:27:29 -0700
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: oclug at mailman.oclug.org
Subject: Re: [OCLUG] (forw) Reminder: https://meet.jit.si/ALE-NW
Organization: If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already.

Quoting john (wub at cox.net):

> I see what they did there:  Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts  - ALE... Free as 
> in beer?
> 
> I'm a bit late, but maybe that's not such a big deal?
> 
> Going to try Firefox, although apparently it will fail in tatters?

Some folks have no problems with particular Firefox versions (talking to
Jitsi Meet), but it's not officially recommended as per
https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet/wiki/Browser-support .[1]

Jitsi Meet relies on browser support for WebRTC (the IETF
videoconferencing protocol suite) and some Javascript.  Reportedly, the
best WebRTC report is in Chromium and browsers that are based on its
Blink rendering engine.

The Jitsi project also has mobile clients (open source) plus 
an odd desktop client that can, if wished, be used instead of a Web
browser.  My notes in progress:

Jitsi Meet Client (28MB APK) for Android  5.0 or newer, published via
F-Droid:
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.jitsi.meet/


Jitsi Meet Client for Android, published on Google Play Store
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.jitsi.meet

Jitsi Meet Client for iOS, published on Apple iTunes Store
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jitsi-meet/id1165103905


Jitsi Meet Electron client (86MB binary for Linux x86_64 or MacOS or
MS-WIndows),
desktop client crafted as a special-purpose single application file
using the Electron Javascript engine, which in turn is constructed from
the Chromium Web browser and the Node.js runtime Javascript environment.
https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet-electron/releases


[1] Browser support is a moving target.  That page currently reflects
status as of May 3, 2020, and may be unmaintained.


----- End forwarded message -----