i've been trying to find the right cisco videophone that i can install, and struggling, but it just clicked that this is the wrong approach. these devices will enter end of life. they're designed to be phased out. that's really not what i want. i've been focusing on finding the right licence, but the licence is going to expire, and then it's a paperweight. i suppose i could still use it to video chat, if anybody else did that; nobody does. people just waste their money on proprietary systems and then pay to upgrade them over and over. i am not going to do that.
it's the operating system that's going to get forced into obsolescence by zoom and the only way to get around that is to use linux. anything else will get tied to the hardware. you could upgrade the firmware, but they'll block you, and they run the servers. what i'm doing with this ancient cisco phone, which is flashing the operating system in the device and then using it to connect to a non-cisco server to provide a service, cannot be done, or at least not yet. zoom is not making the mistake that cisco did; cisco avoided the servers. zoom is selling the servers, and selling access to the servers, and getting more and more aggressive about controlling access to the servers.
i want to hack an old cisco videophone and i am seeing them come up for $30, which is the price i paid for this office phone. i just don't have a use for it, so long as zoom is broadcasting imminent end of life. i also wish they had a vga or hdmi out, and a usb data in, and none do. the lack of data interaction is a potential utility issue.
so, the newer versions by companies like yealink and grandstream update the concept by using android, but they ship with android 7 or 9. you can't even install zoom on android 7 at all and android 9 is facing obsolescence in 2028. these devices are cheap, but they're actually worthless. you could upgrade them, but you're not allowed; perhaps you could force it, but i haven't seen an answer. you could try to run it from the web, too.
you can, however, get a linux tablet that you can upgrade for fairly cheap. if you get relatively recent specs (2.5 quad processor, 16 gb ram), it could last for this function for a while; if they try to force you to upgrade the os, you can do it without getting blocked. it probably has a camera and a mic and an hdmi out. you can input files from external drives. i'd be struggling to look for an ethernet out but could use a usb dongle if necessary. it's probably the best option.