Linux Screen Recording: A C++ GUI or 26 Lines of Bash?

tekk73 — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 16:33:44 +0000

I've used a Linux OS as my daily driver for 15 years now. Recently, I wanted a way to record my screen on my minimal Linux system.

The obvious choice was SimpleScreenRecorder (SSR), a classic, mature C++/Qt application with over 15,000 lines of code. It's an excellent application that solves screen recording for a wide range of users. I even created a fork of SSR with some of the features I didn't need removed.

But I realized my needs were simpler. I could do the same thing with a Bash shell script in my terminal.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -e

case "${1:-}" in
  -h|--help)
    echo "Usage: ssr.sh [filename]       Record screen (default: /home/ben/NEW.mkv)"
    echo "       ssr.sh --list-audio     List PulseAudio sources"
    exit 0
    ;;
  --list-audio)
    pactl list sources short
    exit 0
    ;;
esac

out="${1:-/home/ben/NEW}"
out="$out.mkv"

ffmpeg -y \
  -f x11grab -r 60 -s 1600x900 -i :0.0+0,0 \
  -f pulse -i bluez_sink.00_1A_7D_0A_0C_88.a2dp_sink.monitor \
  -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset fast \
  -c:a aac -b:a 128k \
  "$out"

echo "Saved: $out"

Twenty-six lines. No GUI. Just ffmpeg. For my workflow, that's enough.

My settings never change: same monitor, same resolution, same audio source, same codec. I don't need a settings window every time—I need a keyboard shortcut to start recording and Ctrl+C to stop.The experience reminded me of one of Linux's greatest strengths.

The real power isn't the GUI, but in the tools underneath it.

ffmpeg doesn't care whether it's launched from Qt, GTK, or a shell script. The GUI is a convenient interface, but ffmpeg is the recorder.

I run a minimal system with CrunchBang++, Openbox, and Tint2. My 2021 HP Tiger Lake laptop boots to a login prompt in about 17 seconds—not because it's unusually fast, but because there's no heavy desktop environment and nothing running on my PC that I didn't choose myself.

This isn't an argument against GUI applications or desktop environments. They make software more discoverable and accessible, and Linux applications like SSR deserve a great deal of respect.

But many people are trying Linux for the first time these days. This is simply a reminder that sometimes the best Linux application isn't another application at all. Sometimes it's a shell script, a keyboard shortcut, and the confidence to learn to use the terminal.

tekk73 - July 2026

DEV Community: tekk73

Linux Screen Recording: A C++ GUI or 26 Lines of Bash?