Joining a Microsoft Teams call

putt1ck

Not by choice, you understand, but I have to join a video conference on Microsoft Teams - historically I've tended to just dial in instead or persuade others involved to use a more inclusive vidconf solution (basically all the alternatives). But in this particular case Teams is the only option and I have to be on video not just voice. Is there a packaged up teams-for-linux for KaOS? Or are KaOS users resorting to installing Chrome or Edge?

PS new to KaOS, not new to Linux

demm

Seems any Teams package is electron based, so if it works by using it in Chrome, then you can just use repo packages (Chrome is in, https://kaosx.us/packages/view.php?name=apps/google-chrome-127.0.6485.0-1).
Another option is to use it as a Flatpak, but again, that is just an elctron wrapper:
https://flathub.org/apps/com.github.IsmaelMartinez.teams_for_linux
Yet another option is to build any missing package yourself, KaOS has limited repo's, see:
https://kaosx.us/#repo
https://kaosx.us/docs/package

bvbfan

demm Another option is to use it as a Flatpak, but again, that is just an elctron wrapper:
https://flathub.org/apps/com.github.IsmaelMartinez.teams_for_linux

This is working with no issue, video, audio, screen sharing. I have to use it on my last project, daily.

kaos_user

At least on Windows you can use it via Edge. Have you tried logging with your browser? It should work both audio and video.
I had few calls with people that use teams this way

demm

kaos_user As said, this can be done with google-chrome (electron is chromium based, just like edge being chromium based).

putt1ck

I've tried with browsers before but Firefox doesn't work at all and Chromium (as then bundled with that distro) didn't provide video. Chrome is an option, just tend to avoid it on a privacy basis; the idea of a package that just does the Teams call and nothing else is attractive. I'll have a look at packaging teams-for-linux up 👍️

demm

Just to be sure you understand, when you use any of the Microsoft provided teams packages (for desktop), you basically install closed source chrome with a closed source teams build on top of that, the app is really a webapp.

putt1ck

The last time I successfully joined a vid conf on said tech stack (without borrowing a Windows laptop) it was still called Skype and required a closed source binary. So I accept, grudgingly, the need to use a closed source binary to access a monopolist's service. I've also found Zoom only works properly with the Zoom client, while Google Meet, Jitsi, BBB, Element etc. all work fine in Firefox (and presumably with other browsers also).

Related: I tried to build the teams-for-linux package and hit a dependency issue with "node-gyp". The upstream name shows as "node-gyp" but it can be installed with npm; but having done that pacman doesn't know it's installed. Is there a way to let pacman know the package is installed?

bvbfan

putt1ck The last time I successfully joined a vid conf on said tech stack (without borrowing a Windows laptop) it was still called Skype and required a closed source binary. So I accept, grudgingly, the need to use a closed source binary to access a monopolist's service. I've also found Zoom only works properly with the Zoom client

Last time I've using Zoom it works fine in browser, but in general Teams and Skype using Electron, which is open source, they just adjust it to work with the service. The service isn't open source, same for Zoom and Slack so you have to use Matrix or Mattermost but corporations are away from adopting it since they cannot control them.

putt1ck

For the record I installed teams for linux via flatpak, which then opened a tab in Firefox to join the meeting, which worked fine (considerably better than last time I tried). Microsoft fixed something.