6 ms·

Goodbye, Green Recorder

37 points by reddotX 7y ago

postit 7y ago
Sad to see, but OBS is a very capable and easy to use application if you need.
- thunderbong 7y ago
  Besides the fact that OBS is not open source, why is this comment being down voted? It's also free, isn't it? And therefore a very viable alternative to the vat majority of users
  - icebraining 7y ago
    It's not open source? The repository says GPLv2...
  - buildzr 7y ago
    Free and Open Source GPLv2 (the O is for Open even): https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio
chris_wot 7y ago
Does anyone know the true backstory to this one?
- nkozyra 7y ago
  Why, do you doubt the "it took up too much of my time and energy" story?
  - btxxa 7y ago
    Why would someone post this commit of a practically unknown project here if there was no juicy backstory?
  - chris_wot 7y ago
    He could have just moved the maintainership to someone else. I was wondering if there was something that triggered the decision is all. I wasn't trying to be snarky or mean, I just wanted to know what had cause the burnout. Sorry this got taken the wrong way.
- strenholme 7y ago
  It’s simple open source economics: Since no one is being paid to maintain the software, there is little incentive to continue developing it. However, since it is open source, anyone who feels inclined to can fork the code and create a maintained branch.
- yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
  Just taken at face value, it looks like they didn't want to put in the significant effort of moving to newer display stacks. Wayland has a very different story for screen recorders, in ways which are likely to require significantly more ongoing effort.
  - Spivak 7y ago
    Which I'm not sure I understand fully since I was under the impression that Green Recorder was pretty much created for the singular purpose of supporting GNOME+KDE/Wayland. I'm surprised that GNOME and KDE dropped the ball on this since all they had to do was provide a stable dbus API and any app would be able to consume it with very little fanfare.
    - gmueckl 7y ago
      Yes, except that wayland would have been the proper place to expose it, but they declined because it would supposedly compromise security (spoiler: to reach that interface, you must already have arbitrary code execution). So every compositor is now faced with reimplementing that same wheel on their own - each exposing their own interface somehow.
      - Spivak 7y ago
        Okay, there's a lot to unpack here. First arbitrary code execution doesn't really matter. We're talking about a client-server relationship. Just because you have arbitrary execution on your laptop doesn't mean my server's security is compromised. And just because you have arbitrary code execution in a sandbox, container, flatpak, VM, or other host and can talk to my compositor doesn't mean it's compromised. The security model for Wayland is that it should enable you to create secure systems if you wish to plug the rest of the holes. You can't really use Xorg in a secure system because being able to talk to the X server at all exposes too much privilege. Screen recording (and taking screenshots) is a bad fit for the Wayland protocol because then what is a very small and lean protocol suddenly needs to know about things like image and video encodings. And since it's a display-only protocol you either have to teach Wayland about auto streams and mixing or stitch together your audio out of band. But fine, we somehow all agree that such things are in the scope for a display protocol. Recording your screen is still a privileged operation and Wayland doesn't have an authentication or permissions system. How should they authenticate? In a way that a malicious program can't fake? We end up just reinventing dbus, polkit, pulseaudio, pipewire but in a way that ensures that you can't swap out those components for something else. If you care about standardization then it's really not that bad: GNOME and KDE typically work in tandem when desiging dbus interfaces and smaller DE's end up implementing those. So far the world hasn't ended for media controls and it won't end for screenshots.
- Ellen_Monp 7y ago
  Skeptcism can be good, but not in excess. If you decided to respond by saying "In your opinion(s), what led them to close shop?", folks would have responded more kindly.
- SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
  There's a link to the true backstory here: https://github.com/foss-project/green-recorder/commit/5fc594b44f76b7a1469a893d8502ca3f1fb89312 https://github.com/foss-project/green-recorder/commit/5fc594...
- alexlarsson 7y ago
  My guess is that its due to comments like this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20695387 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20695387
  - btxxa 7y ago
    Well if it was Python 2 only then he wasn't maintaining it much to begin with.
  - mijoharas 7y ago
    The comment has been deleted. What did it say?
    - icebraining 7y ago
      "Python 2 only? Sheesh"
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
StavrosK 7y ago
I'd encourage anyone thinking of archiving/retiring their project to add it to the Code Shelter: https://www.codeshelter.co/ https://www.codeshelter.co/ It's a community that aims to help take care of OSS projects when the maintainer no longer can.
- rambojazz 7y ago
  How is that feasible? Adopting a more or less complex codebase of random projects that you probably have little interest in, have they got any success story that goes beyond the good intentions?
  - StavrosK 7y ago
    I've personally picked up a few abandoned projects, and a few more people have picked up others. It's a good introduction to OSS development, it takes five seconds to do and it beats just archiving the repo even if nobody takes it up.

37 points by reddotX 7y ago

postit 7y ago

Sad to see, but OBS is a very capable and easy to use application if you need.

thunderbong 7y ago
Besides the fact that OBS is not open source, why is this comment being down voted? It's also free, isn't it? And therefore a very viable alternative to the vat majority of users
- icebraining 7y ago
  It's not open source? The repository says GPLv2...
- buildzr 7y ago
  Free and Open Source GPLv2 (the O is for Open even): https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio

chris_wot 7y ago

Does anyone know the true backstory to this one?

nkozyra 7y ago
Why, do you doubt the "it took up too much of my time and energy" story?
- btxxa 7y ago
  Why would someone post this commit of a practically unknown project here if there was no juicy backstory?
- chris_wot 7y ago
  He could have just moved the maintainership to someone else. I was wondering if there was something that triggered the decision is all. I wasn't trying to be snarky or mean, I just wanted to know what had cause the burnout. Sorry this got taken the wrong way.
strenholme 7y ago
It’s simple open source economics: Since no one is being paid to maintain the software, there is little incentive to continue developing it. However, since it is open source, anyone who feels inclined to can fork the code and create a maintained branch.
yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
Just taken at face value, it looks like they didn't want to put in the significant effort of moving to newer display stacks. Wayland has a very different story for screen recorders, in ways which are likely to require significantly more ongoing effort.
- Spivak 7y ago
  Which I'm not sure I understand fully since I was under the impression that Green Recorder was pretty much created for the singular purpose of supporting GNOME+KDE/Wayland. I'm surprised that GNOME and KDE dropped the ball on this since all they had to do was provide a stable dbus API and any app would be able to consume it with very little fanfare.
  - gmueckl 7y ago
    Yes, except that wayland would have been the proper place to expose it, but they declined because it would supposedly compromise security (spoiler: to reach that interface, you must already have arbitrary code execution). So every compositor is now faced with reimplementing that same wheel on their own - each exposing their own interface somehow.
    - Spivak 7y ago
      Okay, there's a lot to unpack here. First arbitrary code execution doesn't really matter. We're talking about a client-server relationship. Just because you have arbitrary execution on your laptop doesn't mean my server's security is compromised. And just because you have arbitrary code execution in a sandbox, container, flatpak, VM, or other host and can talk to my compositor doesn't mean it's compromised. The security model for Wayland is that it should enable you to create secure systems if you wish to plug the rest of the holes. You can't really use Xorg in a secure system because being able to talk to the X server at all exposes too much privilege. Screen recording (and taking screenshots) is a bad fit for the Wayland protocol because then what is a very small and lean protocol suddenly needs to know about things like image and video encodings. And since it's a display-only protocol you either have to teach Wayland about auto streams and mixing or stitch together your audio out of band. But fine, we somehow all agree that such things are in the scope for a display protocol. Recording your screen is still a privileged operation and Wayland doesn't have an authentication or permissions system. How should they authenticate? In a way that a malicious program can't fake? We end up just reinventing dbus, polkit, pulseaudio, pipewire but in a way that ensures that you can't swap out those components for something else. If you care about standardization then it's really not that bad: GNOME and KDE typically work in tandem when desiging dbus interfaces and smaller DE's end up implementing those. So far the world hasn't ended for media controls and it won't end for screenshots.
Ellen_Monp 7y ago
Skeptcism can be good, but not in excess. If you decided to respond by saying "In your opinion(s), what led them to close shop?", folks would have responded more kindly.
SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
There's a link to the true backstory here: https://github.com/foss-project/green-recorder/commit/5fc594b44f76b7a1469a893d8502ca3f1fb89312 https://github.com/foss-project/green-recorder/commit/5fc594...
alexlarsson 7y ago
My guess is that its due to comments like this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20695387 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20695387
- btxxa 7y ago
  Well if it was Python 2 only then he wasn't maintaining it much to begin with.
- mijoharas 7y ago
  The comment has been deleted. What did it say?
  - icebraining 7y ago
    "Python 2 only? Sheesh"

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

StavrosK 7y ago

I'd encourage anyone thinking of archiving/retiring their project to add it to the Code Shelter: https://www.codeshelter.co/ https://www.codeshelter.co/ It's a community that aims to help take care of OSS projects when the maintainer no longer can.

rambojazz 7y ago
How is that feasible? Adopting a more or less complex codebase of random projects that you probably have little interest in, have they got any success story that goes beyond the good intentions?
- StavrosK 7y ago
  I've personally picked up a few abandoned projects, and a few more people have picked up others. It's a good introduction to OSS development, it takes five seconds to do and it beats just archiving the repo even if nobody takes it up.