After a very frustrating experience attempting to use WebEx on my MacBook, I was inspired to do a bit of research into some alternative Web conferencing tools. There are plenty out there that are platform specific, but I wanted to find a few that were compatible with all three operating systems: Mac, Windows and Linux. I sent out a call to my Twitter network to see what was out there, and was pleasantly surprised that there was more than one option.

I did find it intriguing that WebEx claims to support Mac OS, but I’ve not been able to get it to work. I’m a person with above average computer savvy. Do I want to have to call a support number just to see a PR sales pitch or product demo (the two reasons I’m usually on a Web conference client like GoToMeeting)? No. I just want it to work. So if my personal experience is wrong and WebEx does support all three main operating systems as claimed, perhaps this is a call to arms for them to fix it so it works, right away, no fuss no muss, instead of resting on past success. (Also interesting, WebEx and GoToMeeting were two companies who did not reply to my Twitter query and distress call.)

For those of you who, like me, just want a simple, working, solution for whatever operating system you have chosen, I took the responses to my Twitter poll, did a bit of research into each, and made this resource for you. Hope it helps. In no particular order:

DimDim

Featured on Read, Write, Web’s list of Top Enterprise Products for 2008, and considered a contender for businesses handling the recession, DimDim is a fairly new player in the web conferencing game. I contacted the company for an overview, and Kevin Micalizzi, DimDim Community Manager, had this to say: “With Dimdim, you can host and attend web conferences/meetings from Mac, Windows, Linux. We have a small plugin that’s required for desktop sharing, which is not yet available on Linux. Our DimDim Free allows you to host meetings with up to 20 attendees for free.”

Signing up for a free account was the most painless of all of the web conferencing clients I’ve tried to date, and DimDim is absolutely my personal favorite of the web conferencing clients I tried for this article. It has a few hitches, as any new company does, but I think as it grows they will naturally work themselves out. Plus, it comes in at the right price for a company operating on a budget needing to reach all operating system platforms effectively.

Your free account comes with no installation for attendees; browser based and browser hosted; audio/video, screen and document sharing; unrestricted and complete feature set; works with all three major browsers: Mac, Windows and Linux; co-browsing; recording; more than one presenter; private meetings; teleconferences. If you upgrade to the paid packages you get other cool features like branding the meetings with your company logo and look, uptime guarantees, simultaneous meetings, and more. The interface is easy to figure out – even the least tech savvy could join in the meeting, and you don’t have to run a desktop client – something that can’t be said for WebEx and GoToMeeting.

Great America Networks Conferencing

One thing that stood out about GAN Conferencing: their rep on Twitter, Anthony Russo, is on the ball. This company had the fastest and most persistent Twitter response of all of the contenders. Sadly, they have two strikes against them for me: slow (extremely slow) page load times and no free client option. That said, their paid client is not expensive for what it offers. I did not sign up, as there was no free option, so this one is on the list solely because of the excellent representative response times, low cost of the paid service and availability for Mac, Windows and Linux. I’d love to see a limited free version introduced so I could review it more completely.

Meanwhile, their rep Anthony sent me a list of the features included in their paid service: “All of our products are fully cross platform compatible PC/Mac/Linux (Yes, you can present from a Mac or Linux); No downloads or installations are required to join any meetings, or view any archived recordings of our conferences; No long term contract required – We can work month to month so you can be sure it’s the right choice for you; Browser based and Firewall Friendly! Virtually anyone can get in your meetings on about any connection; Full featured WebConferencing/VideoConferencing application with integrated AudioConferencing available, or VOIP; Full Desktop/Application Sharing, PowerPoint, Whiteboard, File Transfer, Online Chat and more; Multiple simultaneous meetings able to be licensed and scaled to as many variable users as required; Online storage library to pre-upload your content and have it ready instantly within your meeting; Multipoint VideoConferencing with scalable, resizable windows. Bandwidths available from 200k up to 1.2M (HD Conferencing); 128-bit SSL Encrypted server available at no additional charge if desired; Customizable Interface to allow for different meetings to portray different themes; Unparalleled support ongoing as long as you are a client with us. Never a charge for training, support, or service; Pricing below anything you might have been quoted previously.”

Adobe Connect Pro

This was recommended a number of times in my informal Twitter poll. However, it is insanely expensive, like pretty much every other Adobe product on the market. It even has a massive sign up fee, combined with minimum requirements on the number of users and more fees in the form of annual dues. In much the same vein as I recommend people find open source or shareware alternatives to Adobe’s design suite, I’d recommend a pass for this also based on price alone. Listen up Adobe: at some point you will realize that your prices drive away potential customers (or maybe you won’t) but either way, we’re in a recession and it is time to offer more options for purchase than your ubiquitous “first born child” and “second mortgage” price points. Adobe Connect Now for three people has reports of issues with speed and reliability in addition to being limited to three people, but I guess it technically serves the “freemium” purpose in this case. If you still want to know if Adobe may work for you in spite of the price point, you can tweet Dave Roitner.

Honorable Mentions

There were a few other names that popped up on my search in Google for a solution to handle all three major operating systems, but not a single one of them got a mention in my two day Twitter poll. If you would like to check out the “also-rans” that say they handle all three operating systems, we’d love your feedback in the comments. The Web conferencing solutions claiming to handle Mac, Windows and Linux that did not get personal recommendations were: Persony, Yugma, PresenterNet, LiveLook, and QNext.

Related:

Entry was posted on Sunday, December 21st, 2008 at 4:16 am under Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Leslie Poston.
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