[PLUG] Raspi, Zoom, cameras, incompatibilities

[Keith Lofstrom]

I bought a Raspberry PI 4 and a CSI-port camera for a standalone
multi-application video teleconferencing system. 

The goal is a second standalone "appliance" that my MD wife can
use for patient televisits while using her main (linux) computer
screen to look at patient records, medical images, etc.

For now, she also uses her main computer (running CentOS and
Chromium) for Zoom, doxy.me, and other teleconferencing apps
that her non-computer-geek patients want her to connect with.
Some use an iPhone teleconferencing app that seems incompatible
with non-Apple platforms (big surprise ... not!).

A mess of incompatibilities and black-box-module security
vulnerabilities.  I do NOT want closed source application
modules running on the same computer as her patient records.

I had hoped the standalone RasPi could fix all this.  Nope.

I found RasPi user forums bemoaning the lack of Arm/Raspbian
modules necessary to run the Zoom app native on the PasPi4.
Only the Chrome/Chromium web interface works, with lousy video
and audio.  No complete and TESTED solutions mentioned on the 
forums, with the last despairing messages in late August.
And Zoom is only the first of many teleconferencing apps
that I hope to run eventually.

I suppose I can add yet another ALIX X86 single board computer,
and configure the RasPi and camera as a webcam connected to the
ALIX's third gigabit ethernet port, but that sounds like "too
many moving parts".  

So - should I hope for Raspberry Pi Foundation and the community
to negotiate with and produce Pi modules for Zoom and other
teleconferencing apps?  

Should I ditch the Pi and use an off-the-shelf Logictech webcam
with another Alix? 

What will be the least trouble in the long term?

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com