The browser version of Zoom seems to require a free account be created, and it was audio only in Chromium, I could not get it to use my camera. Zoom refused to work in Firefox.

Jitsi and Google Meet seem to work in both browsers, without requiring me to log in.

You can join Zoom meetings on your browser without creating an account. It's a bit off the beaten path:

1. Go to zoom.com 2. Click "Join a meeting" 3. Enter meeting id and click Join 4. Ignore the automatic app download 5. Go back 6. Click "Join a meeting" again 7. Enter meeting id and click Join again 8. Ignore the app download again 9. Click at "If nothing prompts, click here" 10. Click "Join from your browser" 11. Agree to terms of service 12. Enter password and name, click Join

Ahh, so this is that "it just works" Zoom experience I've been hearing so much about recently.

The "it just works" experience is for people using the native app. :)

Not saying you should do that, but that's why there's a difference.

I don't use Zoom myself, but some friends that do have been using this: https://github.com/arkadiyt/zoom-redirector

Seems to work for them, and gets around that whole song and dance you described.

This is only true if "your browser" is Chrome. If you try in the latest Firefox or Safari it tells you to try a "modern browser".

It stopped working if the meeting has over 50 people.

Is that just for new people coming in after the 50th? Or do they boot anyone who's logged in via browser once it hits 50?

It's improved a bit, and actually works fine in Firefox Nightly right now, but you have to craft the web client URL directly. The UI will try its very best to make you download the client.

Seen somewhere else: when you get to the web page that launches the app, don't allow that launch, hit (IIRC) "Retry", still don't allow it, and the page should say "Having trouble?" offer a link to the web version.

Or better yet, don't use Zoom...

I've joined plenty of Zoom meetings without creating an account. Are you sure it wasn't just asking you to enter your name and email in the page so people on the call would know who you are when you joined?

The chrome addon!!! https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/zoom/hmbjbjdpkobdj...

Personally, I feel much advantaged when no one can see my face.

And in truth, I usually don't want to see anyone else's face either. Aren't there companies that forbid looking at someone for more than five seconds? Well guess what, on a video call, they're staring at you for minutes on end.

> Aren't there companies that forbid looking at someone for more than five seconds?

Wait what? Could someone explain to me the reasoning behind a policy like this?

Edit: it appears to be a sexual harassment policy, and apparently Netflix has tried it [0]

[0] https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/netflix-five-second-s...

Extremely unlikely Netflix actually has a policy like this. It was probably an example of what could be considered creepy in some circumstances during a training.

Perhaps Netflix had a very unhealthy (aka filthy) environment, like Uber and the likes, and they cracked it "up to eleven".

Perhaps, but almost certainly not. This sounds exactly like things that were said in sexual harassment trainings I've been to at other large companies. These trainings often provide examples of what can be construed which ways, because a non-trivial slice of any given sample of humanity totally lacks social graces. They don't want someone to later complain that, "I was only looking," when they get reprimanded for leering at a colleague.

Examples like this can accidentally or intentionally be misread as policy, but it is not actually policy. It's an example of what can be not OK in some contexts. Of course, I'm happy to be corrected if someone who works there wants to jump on and say otherwise. But I very much doubt that such a policy exists. Doesn't pass the sniff test.

https://qz.com/work/1306193/is-it-sexual-harassment-to-stare...

"A spokeswoman clarified there is no such “rule” at Netflix. However, she confirms that the recommendation was, in fact, discussed in an anti-harassment training session, though it’s not an official guideline."

What should I look at conversing with another person? I used to look in the eyes or just in the face, I don't understand why is it harassment? Should I look at tits instead, is it less harassment or what? Shall I just close my eyes? West culture is weird.