this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
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I beg you, if you are a developer of an open source app or program - add screenshots of your app to the README file. When looking for the perfect app, I had to install dozens of them just to see what the user interface looked like and whether it suits me. This will allow users to decide if the app they choose will suit them... Please, don't think about it, just do it....

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

To be fair, most of time you can just Google %appname% screenshot. I understand that this is not as convenient as having screenshots in the readme, but eh, it's not as big of a problem when you realize this.

P.S. I do actually add at least one screenshot for my software. Maybe because sometimes UI is one of the main focus, idk. I just feel like it.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

UI is always the main focus for the user. Because it's the "User Interface".

Searching the web for screenshots is an added hassle and something that makes me avoid most FOSS software, because sometimes there's not enough screenshots and not even the developer cared to show what the app is about.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Well that's what FOSS is. You can always contribute and add screenshots if you'd like.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I think that doesn't work for most smaller projects. That'll work for something like Firefox, but there's little reason for random, unheard of tools to have an image on the web. Plus the naming of some projects is super generic, which can make it hard to find correct images.

Some software changes appearance often, too, and google is bad at knowing what up to date is. It can be really easy to find wildly out of date images as the top results.