Open Source Alternative (CamStudio)

[mouser]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/camstudio/

haven't tried it myself yet..

[nudone]

great find there, mouser.

can't quite remember where it was now but whilst the screencasting review was being done i arrived a website that had 'CamStudio' on it. the trouble was, every time i tried to download the exe file or visit the 'CamStudio' homepage i got redirected to http://www.macromedia.com/software/robodemo/ which is for 'Macromedia Captivate'.

i gave up trying to obtain the program after that as i assumed Macromedia must have engulfed the project somehow.

the weird thing is that if you click on the 'CamStudio Website' link from the help menu inside the program itself you  are then directed to the Captivate web page again.

anyhow, going to try the program now...

[mouser]

yup: http://www.rendersoftware.com/

something is really fishy..
looks like they must have made some deal with macromedia to promote robodemo/captivate and stop providing their software.
but at the same time its on sourceforge.

you can see in the sourceforge downloads mentions of camstudio that used to be available on rendersoftware page.
sounds like macromedia made them an offer they couldn't refuse.

[clif_notes]

Check out the review of CamStudio by my friend George. http://freewarewiki.pbwiki.com/index.php?wiki=CamStudio
Neither of us had trouble getting a copy. George actually emailed and got a response from the author.

CamStudio is free forever
George wrote to fill me in on the future plans that the author of CamStudio has for his great program.

... from Nick about CamStudio. The short version is that he intends to keep CamStudio freeware from this point onward.

Thanks George, I'm sure we are all happy to hear that. A special thanks to Nick. Keep on doing what you do best.

[mouser]

wonderfull news!

three cheers for the camstudio authors!!

[mouser]

really nice long review of it here:
http://georgeh123.blogspot.com/2005/09/software-presentation-tool-camstudio.html

along with other good reviews.

[clif_notes]

George writes some of the best reviews I've seen around. He's a member of my wiki and is featured in my newsletter whenever he gets around to writing a new one.

I like the way he uses CamStudio to capture and display tutorials covering the software he writes about.

[GeorgeH]

George Here!

Thanks for the nice comments about my review of Camstudio.  The author said that the SWF Producer creates such large files is it converts them to either PCM or ADPCM.  I think Nick would like to add MP3 to the list.  If any of you are interested, you can e-mail him at nickthegeek@gmail.com>

George

[clif_notes]

George Here!

Welcome to DonationCoder George. I hang out here quite a bit lately. Pull up a keyboard and make yourself at home.

You won't find many other forums out there that have so many people willing to try new things and write about them.

Be sure to check out the reviews and mini-reviews. Top-notch stuff.

[Hubbabub]

You can read more about CamStudio here http://www.camstudio.org/

[urlwolf]

wow, nice find considering how expensive these programs are.
I have an old version of camstasia that doesn't even export to swf and the upgrade (1.0.1 to current) was $150. bye camstasia!

[lanux128]

CamStudio always looked like a viable option and needs further looks. btw, its author has restarted work on the program and is asking for help to continue the app's development.