@matt we were using google classroom just fine on an Ubuntu 18.04 box
It was actually working fine on a pi 2 running Raspbien when there were no video components. Might've been fine then too, but I had no daytime debug time, so I just moved to an x86 box with sufficient horsepower to pull a train pulling a mule wanting to go the other direction
@lufthans excellent, exactly what I wanted to hear. thank you.