Webcams

1 Webcam software

You want to record a video of your face?

Simple, reliable software choice: Cheese whose unremarkable feature is just that it works. Takes photos and videos with minimal fuss AFAICT.

A fancier alternative is webcamoid which has many filters, features, virtual webcam devices, and inter-application routing. However, for me it records only silent videos, which is a bit of a showstopper for recording lectures.

2 Linux-compatible webcams

A good first approximation to “which webcams are Linux-compatible” is the Linux UVC lists. Confusingly, the recommended webcam app for Ubuntu, Cheese never works for me, which might persuade me my webcams don’t work. But they work in everything else. A good alternative “pro” test app is guvcview which additionally has extra diagnostics.

Use a real camera instead of a crappy webcam.