Yes, there is a Linux desktop Electron app. Beeper provides the below links to download Beeper clients on Beeper’s Download page.
The source code for the above clients are not available though. Beeper’s self-host repo claims that the clients are closed-forks of Element’s Android, iOS, Desktop, and Web apps.
However, Beeper’s self-host Github repo outlines the steps required to self-host Beeper’s web service, which is essentially a Synapse Matrix server, Mautrix bridges, and other bridges/bots/services to help run the Matrix Server and connect the Matrix Server to other services.
What do you mean by “defaults to off”? The links for Jitsi were just to how it’s set for recording. However, closed captions seem to be turned on by default already. I think that may be more what you are looking for?
I’m not sure which use case you’re referring to specifically, but I have not used any caption functionality in any of the services listed. However, I was able to find the below documentation. At a quick glance, it looks like Jitsi and BigBlueButton support captions better than Jami does.
A free, libre, opensource, and privacy focused alternative to Zoom is Jitsi, which can be used without an account.
If you want even more privacy, you could host your own video conferencing service. Some options are below.
Agreed. It would also be nice if they provided the source code, especially since its just a fork of an opensource project. Hopefully Beeper is at least up-streaming new features, bug fixes, etc.