Captura is a great piece of software - I've used it for years, and I still use the latest release today.
It is a complete, all-in-one tool - very straightforward UI, lots of formats supported (especially through ffmpeg integration) and very easy to use in terms of window or screen area selection for recording - and more importantly for my use-cases, it's portable (no install, no admin rights needed). Really a great example of what's possible in that space.
I didn't participate in the project, but I've checked out the PRs and issues list every now and then and it's been frustrating seeing the author struggle against the store republishing issues for literal years. The issue tracking that (#405[1]) is not a happy read for sure.
The fact that Captura's MIT licensing gave effectively a "license to steal" to people and that it's so easy to publish something and sell it on the Microsoft store didn't mesh well.
I've however been really disappointed by Microsoft's non-response through all of that republishing debacle. Republishing free software is a difficult topic to get right for edge-cases, sure, but the Captura case was obvious to rule on and Microsoft did nothing for years - it was clear that there was no process for this kind of scenario, and that the solution was to do nothing. It took the author taking down the project for them to react, and even then I'm convinced that's only because whoever handled that case assumed that the republisher was the one taking it down, not the project author.
Years ago, I made a significant piece of money with a game on the Windows Mobile app store. I'm French and, at that time, was unable to get the right documents to receive my money on my bank account. It was as if the Microsoft store was only conceived for US citizens. I kept trying to contact anyone at Microsoft, using various communication channels but received 0 response and the money kept growing.
Fortunately, I won a Microsoft chalenge about apps development. I had the opportunity to go to Seattle and assist to the next Microsoft mobile OS (Windows Phone). At the presentation, I took the opportunity, during a coffee break, to explain my situation to the presenter. He was so sorry and gave me an operational contact. Days later everything was resolved and I finally received my money.
Lesson learned: Microsoft is a huge bureaucracy but you can manage to find real involved and competent people. As a French person, I know how to deal with bureaucracy: avoid it if you can. I switched to other development platform and never go back to Microsoft.
It is a complete, all-in-one tool - very straightforward UI, lots of formats supported (especially through ffmpeg integration) and very easy to use in terms of window or screen area selection for recording - and more importantly for my use-cases, it's portable (no install, no admin rights needed). Really a great example of what's possible in that space.
I didn't participate in the project, but I've checked out the PRs and issues list every now and then and it's been frustrating seeing the author struggle against the store republishing issues for literal years. The issue tracking that (#405[1]) is not a happy read for sure.
The fact that Captura's MIT licensing gave effectively a "license to steal" to people and that it's so easy to publish something and sell it on the Microsoft store didn't mesh well.
I've however been really disappointed by Microsoft's non-response through all of that republishing debacle. Republishing free software is a difficult topic to get right for edge-cases, sure, but the Captura case was obvious to rule on and Microsoft did nothing for years - it was clear that there was no process for this kind of scenario, and that the solution was to do nothing. It took the author taking down the project for them to react, and even then I'm convinced that's only because whoever handled that case assumed that the republisher was the one taking it down, not the project author.
[1] https://github.com/MathewSachin/Captura/issues/405