this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2021
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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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.