Remote Communication

This list is work in progress.

As more people are going remote, there is an outbreak of proprietary software happening around the Internet. Many are suggesting to use proprietary video conferencing software as an alternative to meeting in person. Proprietary vendors are hopping to the task by offering free as in cost services (temporarily) that would lock organizations into continuing to use that vendor. Let us work together to promote free software alternatives instead.

• Chat
  • Video
    • Jitsi Meet
    • GNU Jami
    • gstreamer/icecast
    • BigBlueButton
  • Audio
    • Mumble
      • Mumble is pretty easy for end users, and there appear to be free native clients for every major platform. On the server, it has a low memory footprint, but can use a lot of server bandwidth if many people are talking at once in a channel that has many people listening in. Clients would see an increase in downlink bandwidth at these times, which is okay, since most asymmetrical residential connections allow for a larger downlink.
  • Text and possibly document sharing
    • IRC
      • IRC
      • KiwiIRC
        • Manual edits need to be made to remove the non-free captcha system. Also the ircd in question needs to have websocket support so Kiwi IRC can connect directly to IRC servers without relying upon the backend for SaaSS.
      • The Lounge
        • This likely requires SaaSS, so is not highly recommended
    • Rocket Chat
    • Wire
    • Mattermost
• Document Writing and document sharing
  • Etherpad
  • Ethercalc
  • Drawpile
  • CodiMD
  • LibreOffice Online
  • NextCloud
• Learning Management Solutions (LMS)
  • Moodle
• Misc
  • Software Defined Radio (SDR)
    • GNU Radio
      • gqrx