Show HN: Cap – open-source alternative to Loom | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Cap – open-source alternative to Loom

github.com

53 pointsmcilroy14 comments

The code repo literally still has default templates: https://github.com/cap-so/cap/tree/main/apps/desktop

From what I can tell, the developer woke up today and decided creating the marketing material up front was more important than actually writing the app.

Next.

Thank you! Changed this. Progress is around 1.5 weeks in. Base app is built.

https://x.com/richiemcilroy/status/1725581789140332698?s=46&...

There’s currently no contributor guide just yet, hence the lack of a proper readme in the desktop app.

Looks like you're the creator - there isn't much information about what state this is in. If I clone the repo and run the tauri app, it's a Loom alternative?

Might also be worth throwing in instructions to answer the question "how do I use this" as there are no releases and windows/os x are "coming soon"

Looks interesting conceptually to tackle an OSS option here with Atlassian swooping in on Loom, though there isn't much code yet, been working on a loom alternative as well, and debating open sourcing it. What do you have working so far and for what platform? We've found a lot of funny nuances trying to get it to work for both windows and mac (and eventually linux). Lots of easy ways to kill perf.

How are you handling different platforms? Since i's open source are you thinking the link sharing will only be part of your paid product, or are you going to open source a way to host/share?

I think there's going to be a good opening here for an alternative since acquisitions like this into a larger company not known for UX is likely to slow things down, but we'll see. I like to think more about what would actually differentiate beyond just a Loom replacement. I think there's some cool stuff that they never tackled.

Also what does "a lot more lightweight and faster to use" mean when contrasting against Loom for you? Is their client particularly heavyweight in any way?

I thought it was Kap for a moment https://getkap.co/ similar name, similar product (but that one is ready to use).

Also a bit confused as it seems there is nothing there besides an idea and a landing page.

If the roadmap is accurate then some of the core features (like sharing the recorded video) are not done yet: https://cap.so/roadmap

Hey! That’s right, Cap is still under active development, working towards launch of v1.

I'm confused why this is a Show HN, it's not in a usable state, not even close.

I thought it’d be worthwhile showing the project as early on as possible. The discord is already full of some great ideas / feedback.

But I appreciate your point.

I cloned the repo and tried building it, but it seems there's a bunch of devDependencies missing in the package.json? It doesn't appear to build or run to a usable state.

Seems like vaporware for now.

More of an idea than a thing, at this stage

So, tell me about Cap.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com