March 13, 2006 Linux Web Conferencing: Share And Share Alike? Desktop Linux: A Familiar Dilemma. By Howard Wen Courtesy of Page 3 of 5 A Wallflower At The Web Conferencing Party? While Glance and MegaMeeting both officially support Linux with their Web conferencing products, both firms' Linux products lack one key feature: The ability to host a meeting or to share a Linux desktop with other meeting participants. In fact, neither product allows Linux users to share their desktops, although they are able to join meeting sessions and to view a host's Windows desktop. In addition, some Glance users have reported being able to host under Linux by using WINE, a popular open-source implementation of the Microsoft Windows APIs that allow some Windows software to run on Linux and Unix systems, though Glance Networks does not officially endorse this approach. "For a variety of reasons, we can't technically support it. But I've heard of no issues with it. It's been excellent for a number of our customers," Doe says. Marratech and another Java-enabled Web conferencing service, Elluminate Live!, do enable Linux users to host sessions and share their desktops. Before users can take advantage of these more Linux-friendly solutions, however, they must deal with yet another challenge: a lack of up-to-date Linux drivers, or in some cases any drivers, for various types of PC multimedia hardware. Many webcam vendors, for example, provide little or no Linux support, contributing to what developers cite as the major factor setting back wider development of Linux-ready Web conferencing tools. In spite of such challenges, developers at the handful of Web conferencing companies which fully support Linux try their best to keep up. "There were a few challenges with implementing specific features that require native operating system support. Some core features will operate differently depending on the native support [like] with application sharing and video," says Rajeev Arora, vice president of strategy and business development for Elluminate, Inc.. "The Linux world includes many distributions," says Marratech's Lachapelle. "Building software for Linux means having to focus on a few distributions for testing and quality assurance. Choosing what distribution to support is a challenge, as there is no 'universal' system. "The desktop technologies in Linux have changed quickly and are still on a steep evolution curve," he added. "Some Linux distributions tend to drop older technologies very quickly, making it challenging as we need to keep up with these changes instead of focusing on other improvements." E-mail This Story Print This Story Page 4: Survival In The Blackboard Jungle Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Get the latest Messaging news, product info, and trends every week.			Pump Up the Online Jam Review: Office Live Beta Puts SOHOs Online Analysis: AOL Teams With WebEx For Enterprise IM Office 2007 To Feature New Workflow, Collaboration Tools Yahoo Adds Features To Firefox Toolbar Gordano Updates Messaging Suite With SNMP Links     Messaging Pipeline's Main RSS Feed     Messaging Pipeline's Blog RSS Feed Editorial and vendor perspectives The Six Flavors Of Windows Vista Microsoft plans to release a full six-pack of Vista versions, one for every taste. Which Vista will be right for you? Hope is Not Enough When It Comes To Compliance Three Ways To Authenticate E-Mail And Stop Spam Wikis In The Workplace Review: Google Desktop 3 Vendors are now talking about how collaboration can be improved by integrating video with messaging applications. They're even talking about adding live TV to mobile phones. How far do you go before it becomes a bandwidth and business productivity drain? Video is a great idea     13% Video is fine but there needs to be size limits     25% It's never used for anything really productive     38% I draw the line at live TV     25% In search of messaging products? Check out our brand new Product Finder for a directory of groupware and collaboration tools, security products, archiving solutions, and more.