what i can do that's affordable and will last is this.

- get a cheap android 15 tablet. which is possible.

- buy a usb c to usb, hdmi and rj-45 hub

- get a used monitor and cheap keyboard, mouse (the android probably has a touch screen, which is yuck)

- get a usb phone interface

the usb phone interface will connect to a softphone in the tablet and act like an office phone, whereas the tablet can run the android zoom app, until it can't and i can do it from the web instead. i can send it out to the monitor and use the normal computer peripherals. i can hack it eventually, or find one with ubuntu on it to start so i don't have to. but i'm going to get better hardware with the android 15 devices, i think.

these devices are designed for video and they work well for that reason. they will not have performance issues and should be compatible until well after 2035.

realistically, that's what a videophone is going to end up being, but with an older os you can't update and with less potential peripherals. but i can go through the yealink vp-59 and make sure i'm not skipping any features i want, too.

what i'm looking for appears to be widely available for consumers in china but is non-existent here. our corporate sector is going to destroy itself through greed, and slow us down in the process. zoom's days are numbered.

all american telecom companies seem to die the same way. it makes capitalism look terrible, but only the japanese have been in any position to react, for years. the chinese are making us look incompetent, truly.

my aluminum came in but i got sidetracked looking at zoom devices. 

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.

the idiot trump is doing everything he can to stop a necessary and beneficial war in iran from happening, and he's doomed to fail.

i still don't know why the media wants to talk about ending the war in iran.

the inevitable regime change war in iran, which is more inevitable and certain now than it ever has been, hasn't started yet.