Hacker Remix

Show HN: I made a web-based, free alternative to Screen Studio

420 points by johnwheeler 22 hours ago | 103 comments

monkeywork 18 hours ago

Would love to be able to self host this tool - I'd be fine with purchasing a license to do so but I'd really rather not have this running on hardware that isn't mine - wrapping this up in a docker container that I can deploy would be mint.

yashness 7 hours ago

How much would you pay for it for lifetime value? Context: I had built very similar tool myself & can implement a few more features to make it self host possible to sell license.

Imustaskforhelp 15 hours ago

Don't worry about the docker container right now, since the community can figure it out though it would obviously be a great step imo.

First we really need the Source code of this tool though if we really want this tool to stay for posterity!

TrapLord_Rhodo 4 hours ago

He builds in public on his youtube channel. he pretty much types every line of code onto the screen... No one can ever make everyone happy.

owebmaster 15 hours ago

No mate, you need to help the creator of the tool to make enough money from it to create a sustainable business/project

aloisdg 14 hours ago

both are possible

VWWHFSfQ 11 hours ago

That's a fantasy of the hobby FOSS developer.

"If I make something so great then people will still pay me even if I give it away for free!"

A tiny percentage of people might still pay for it, but the vast majority will not, and will complain loudly about any attempts to monetize.

mynameisvlad 5 hours ago

Why does everything need to be made for profit? Why does someone NEED to be paid for every project, every scrap of work?

You said it yourself, this is a hobby FOSS developer. Key word hobby.

Have people stopped understanding that others do things simply because they want to? Not everything is profit-driven, even on this site.

Imustaskforhelp 3 hours ago

This is what I was referring to.

Though I can also understand the child comment on your comment as well. I think that is a reasonable statement as well.

This is a really weird ethical dilemma that I still hold, as a hobby creator myself (just not at a scale of really earning money,but boy I sure would want to ), I want to earn money from it but I also want to distribute it freely, I am not sure how I can get both.

VWWHFSfQ 5 hours ago

I would like for artisan, indie developers to be able to sustain some kind of a living off their work instead of being forced to work at a soul-sucking faang optimizing ad clicks because their hobby projects can't pay any bills.

micromacrofoot 6 hours ago

> A tiny percentage of people might still pay for it, but the vast majority will not, and will complain loudly about any attempts to monetize.

This is true of all products though, in ecommerce 1% conversion is pretty average... generally the path is to increase the top of the funnel because it's always small at the bottom... some products get by with 0.5% or less

dackdel 10 hours ago

[flagged]

scoot 8 hours ago

"For posterity"?

What is the cultural significance of this tool that would require it?

johnwheeler 18 hours ago

Right on! That is definitely something I am willing to explore over time! I know Basecamp has been experimenting with the Pay Once model with great success.

chillfox 17 hours ago

I don't really have a use for this particular software, but I wanted to add my +1 to pay once self-hosted Sofware. It's such a great model for the customer and I have bought software with that model even when there were free open-source alternatives. I really hope it works on the business side as I would love for it to viable.

jofzar 18 hours ago

You 100% need a privacy policy, you are potentially storing PII information and secure details with this.

People are a nightmare, I can already see someone leaking secrets with this.

pentagrama 19 hours ago

Seems cool! But for privacy reasons I prefer to do the recording locally and send the file myself. I've been using the extension https://cursorful.com/ (only for Chrome), which doesn't upload the video to the cloud, it just does everything locally, and the free tier features are enough for me.

jofzar 18 hours ago

I have used cursorful before but make sure you aren't using it for commerical use, need to buy a license for that.

I really want a free version from commercial use tbh, not that cursorful is expensive

johnwheeler 18 hours ago

Thanks! Hosting in the cloud lets me centrally manage assets and makes it easier to add interactive features like Arcade and Supademo, which require server-side components. It also simplifies analytics and customization. Currently, I store everything in S3 but purge the videos every few days. If this gains traction, I'm already experienced with implementing standards like SOC 2.

danudey 51 minutes ago

I'd love a self-hosted version for no other reason than to be able to customize encode quality and video size. I'd like to do some video casts for my coworkers on workflows I developed/use, but sharper text would be convenient.

santa_boy 19 hours ago

pretty cool. soon there will be an open source version of this

perpil 4 hours ago

The fact you've copied screen.studio so closely leaves a bad taste in my mouth. On the landing page you apply formatting in Google Sheets, just like screen studio does. It's ok to be inspired by screen studio but remember they are mostly a solo dev too so try and be more original.

93po 4 hours ago

we live in capitalism. capitalism is competing with others to make money. there are legal protections in place for intellectual property, and those protections are already far too damaging to innovation and creativity. he's operating within legal boundaries and doing the same thing everyone else does in business. i don't see the problem as long as it isn't illegal.

if we want to talk about ethics and morals in capitalism, then we have to start with the discussion of how all of it is damaging, and not just blame isolated examples as damaging or "bad"

pell 2 hours ago

No one said it's illegal. They said it leaves a bad taste. I also don't think this particular comment was necessarily a critique of capitalism as a whole.