Brosix - collaboration (chat, video, screensharing)

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webfork
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Re: Brosix Portable IM

#16 Post by webfork »

Just retested the program. While it's definitely come a long way and has some pretty great features to compete with big software companies like Cisco and Microsoft, I was a little frustrated by the size of the program both in terms of disk space (250 megs) and RAM (~100 megs on Win7). That said, the program compares itself to HipChat and Slack, both of which use way more RAM.

Edit: connectivity with other networks appears to have been removed so I'm taking that out of the description.

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smaragdus
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Re: Brosix

#17 Post by smaragdus »

The memory usage of latest version of Brosix (4.1 Build 181214 released on 2018-12-14) varied on my test- it used between 11.8 MB - 86.7 MB of RAM. The program has advantages- no phone number required, clean and intuitive GUI (several themes available), feature-rich, customizable, true portable version, cross platform, native (Qt 5, no Electron/JavaScript). Dropping support for other networks was inevitable since most of them (with the exception of ICQ) are dead now- MSN, Yahoo, AOL, while Jabber never worked. The Android version has significantly less features than the Windows one. Brosix is bulky because it uses Qt 5.

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Midas
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Re: Brosix Portable IM

#18 Post by Midas »

webfork wrote: I was a little frustrated by the size of the program both in terms of disk space (250 megs) and RAM (~100 megs on Win7).
My first reaction, precisely. A quarter Gig for a chat program, are you serious? :shock:

smaragdus wrote: Dropping support for other networks was inevitable since most of them (with the exception of ICQ) are dead now- MSN, Yahoo, AOL, while Jabber never worked.
:cry:

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Re: Brosix

#19 Post by smaragdus »

My first reaction, precisely. A quarter Gig for a chat program, are you serious? :shock:
The size is the price of being cross platform but for these 240 MB Brosix offers a lot- chat rooms, audio and video calls, screen sharing, white board, encryption. The free version is not severely crippled- in my opinion it offers all the features a user would need. The program is clean- there are no ads and no nags. Also- I have communicated with the developers in the past- I got real responses, not automated ones. Compared to non-native Electron chat programs this one is as light as a a feather. My major concern is that the longevity of the service- I have seen so many chat networks disappear and I lost contacts in the process.

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Re: Brosix

#20 Post by webfork »

smaragdus wrote: Tue Dec 18, 2018 7:30 am
My first reaction, precisely. A quarter Gig for a chat program, are you serious? :shock:
The size is the price of being cross platform but for these 240 MB Brosix offers a lot- chat rooms, audio and video calls, screen sharing, white board, encryption. The free version is not severely crippled- in my opinion it offers all the features a user would need. The program is clean- there are no ads and no nags. Also- I have communicated with the developers in the past- I got real responses, not automated ones. Compared to non-native Electron chat programs this one is as light as a a feather. My major concern is that the longevity of the service- I have seen so many chat networks disappear and I lost contacts in the process.
Agreed, good summary.

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Re: Brosix Portable IM

#21 Post by Midas »

My observation was purely theoretical. Apart from a picture post to Telegram once in a blue moon, I almost never do any Internet chatting...

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Re: Brosix Portable IM

#22 Post by webfork »

After contacting support, I found a changelog: https://www.brosix.com/downloads/builds/changelog.txt ... entry updated.

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Re: Brosix Portable IM

#23 Post by webfork »

Strange development on this program. After installing, the program directs you to a website called "Brx.World" (https://brx.world), which is not mentioned on the Brosix site but describes access some of the premium features for free. Even more odd, it doesn't appear on the Brosix home page and requires signing up for another account.

Very confusing.

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Re: Brosix Portable IM

#24 Post by webfork »

webfork wrote: Sun Jun 23, 2019 4:56 pm After installing, the program directs you to a website called "Brx.World"
I contacted brosix about their Brx.World but I'm not going to bore anyone with their response, which I didn't understand. It's a community or something.

In related news, smaragdus was kind enough to test out the base program and I was really impressed. The program definitely has something above and beyond what's available with expensive commercial collaboration tools like Skype, Webex, and many others. I really liked that you could share whole folders, the co-browsing features were solid, and even the whiteboard was a good starting point. Very useful.

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Re: Brosix Portable IM

#25 Post by webfork »

Update on the Brosix and the Brx.World program: my login no longer works and now the program will ONLY login to the Brx.World service, which I never setup. Weird.

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Re: Brosix - collaboration (chat, video, screensharing)

#26 Post by webfork »

Posting this in forums to see if anyone has feelings on the topic, but despite seeing some recent updates to their software, I'm not especially interested in tracking activity around this group. Their pricing page seems to suggest audio-video tools aren't available unless you're a paying customer, but when you scroll down those are still available at the free tier. This and their BRX.World redirect mentioned in previous entries has put me off tracking udpates. Do I really need to check and see at each update if they're pulling features for free users?

To be clear, Brosix hasn't done anything I can point to as specifically wrong, it's more of a case that I want to send our visitors to good software projects and I'm not sure if this is one of them.

Feedback welcome.

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