I just got rid of my last Windows computer and switched to Linux full time. I’m forced to use Zoom to attend online lectures at my university and WOW is the Linux client for Zoom terrible compared to Windows. For one, it doesn’t have an option to have the gallery view above the screen share view, only beside it, which wastes screen space. It also forces itself into full screen mode whenever someone starts sharing their screen, AND when I switch it back to windowed mode, it’s not maximized even when it was before. It also launches a blank “join a meeting” window alongside the active meeting every time I click on a meeting from Canvas (my University’s course management system) or switch into a breakout group. Finally, for some reason it forcibly disables KDE’s power management modes whenever it’s active.
Screw you Zoom. Fix your shitty software on Linux!
Fuck Zoom anyway. Everyone thinks they invented video conferencing for some reason. Use Jitsi.
If only my university did that.
I use the web version.
How did you get a pre-scheduled Zoom meeting to not immediately tell you to install the app and actually go to the web client? I never even got an option to use the web version.
At the very bottom of the page there’s usually a link that says: “Having issues with Zoom Client? Join from Your Browser”
Thanks!
There’s also a Firefox addon which redirects you automatically IIRC
If you click on the download and then reject it, a new link appears to open in web version. I am strongly considering figuring out how that works and creating a FF extension to generate those web links automatically.
I know my Linux environment is pretty sandboxed, but I’d rather go back to Windows than install Zoom software on any of my devices.
There actually is a web extension: https://github.com/arkadiyt/zoom-redirector
Pro-tip: use the web client. It’s hidden but there are addons that automatically open it.
You can disable the auto fullscreen in settings. And while we’re on it, settings are only available during a meeting, it’s so stupid.
Someone mentioned web client, but it tries so hard to not be used. First it’s so hidden, second it’s missing many features my school requires me to use…
Anyway, fuck zoom, probably the most popular UI gore I’ve seen.
Settings are available outside meetings – if you create and account and log in. One of those “makes sense but why can’t you save the settings locally?”.
I use tiling extensions for my desktop (either PaperWM or Material Shell, for GNOME) so thankfully the “window not maximized” is not an issue, but thanks, I did not realize Screen Sharing auto-fullscreen can be disabled!
Haha, I’m on a Zoom call … right now!!! (It’s caused a bunch of problems, lemme tell you, oh wait you already know all of them!)
sigh … like a patron told me today, ya gotta laff to keep from crying!
Hard agree, they also don’t have certain features enabled when you’re a host, which really screws things royally when you find this out in the middle of cohosting an event and you’re supposed to handle the heavy lifting of moderation
Skype client is even worse according to me, when speaking of video conferencing apps. The out of focus pop-up is so annoying (even if I only recently noticed it can be disabled), especially with tilling wm’s, since it reserve a space for itself. This tiny pop-up can’t be resized to make it more bearable, as a PiP window, and only make you use the main program window instead. Speaking of which, they still haven’t seems to figure out how to make their background webcam feature work. They know how to blur it, but not how to put selected pictures. Despite that, they added this option without testing it, making those buttons totally useless. And don’t get me started on the stupid Firefox user-agent block (Which can be bypassed with add-on too).
And don’t get me started on the stupid Firefox user-agent block (Which can be bypassed with add-on too).
I long for the day where blocking browsers based on user agent can be punished as anticompetitive behaviour. Like I get that you didn’t test it on Firefox or you think it’ll perform badly, but just let me try it! I can’t think of any actually harmful effect that using an unintended browser can cause, and I feel like there aren’t any.
I have to use cisco webex, and while the executable is not available for linux, I can say that the web interface is equally outright awful.
The audio system doesn’t work if you don’t have a microphone (at least on firefox, if the microphone permission is denied, you don’t get to hear anything).
The video disables itself randomly for bandwidth problems, when nor me nor others are having connection hiccups and then takes its sweet time to come back up.
There is no way to set the webcam as primary “panel” and sometimes the presenter uses it to share hand-written notes. Combined with the fact that half the time the presenter is also sharing their computer screen, the cam’s vibile area is so tiny the text is unreadable.Finally, the mute button gives a false sense of security: the host of the session can force-enable them from their side.
This feature was highlighted in an incident I escalated with my course to the privacy office at my university.
A professor activated all the microphones and there was this girl crying her eyes off while arguing with her parents. I hope she never realised what happened, she was already too much shaken to handle being humiliated publicly.I at least managed to find a workaround for the microphone: right after the audio transmission has started, if the microphone permission is removed, the stream halts for a second, then continues without any problems. The mic comes on, but after this trick it stays off as intended and no force-enable can do anything about it.
Webex is the absolute worst. My company got on it when quarantine hit, and I couldn’t join a meeting when signed in (I “didn’t have permission”), can’t join a meeting when NOT signed in, had to log in as a guest every time, and couldn’t screencast a single application - had to share my entire double monitor, which made text too small to read for most folk. It never once worked correctly, not in any of the time I used it.
I haven’t used teams much on windows but the teams client isn’t that bad. It would be funny if microsoft had a better linux client for their meetings than zoom.
It’s all Electron shit. It’s so easy to make bad Electron apps and so hard to do it right.
Last i tried it teams for linux had maximum 4 cameras at once (when it did work). Zoom has a clunky client but is otherwise solid. Teams has only been gaining ground because it comes bundled with office 365.
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Just use the web version! When you get a zoom link after clicking on the join meeting once, a link will come at the bottom “Open in browser”
