Debian Packages Screenshots Repository Launched

Christoph Haas writes "A picture is worth a thousand words. And thanks to screenshots.debian.net this finally comes true for Debian packages. The new website was launched just a week ago and has already collected screenshots for 740 packages shipping with the Linux distribution — with new uploads pouring in every hour. Debian users can finally get an impression of how an application would look before installing it."

Re:Great, but needs guidelines.

[Thelasko]

Great idea, but it needs some guidelines.

Yeah, guidelines like these [debian.net] would be great.

Re:Great, but needs guidelines.

[Daimanta]

True, but most of the open-source programs begin this way. Hackish and just working as the developers want it. After that you get feature enchancements and discussions about implementation of functionality. I expect that the lib picture problem is full resolved in a month or 3.

A killer feature?

[digitalderbs]

This is a very good idea. I could see this being one of those new killer features to brings linux to more desktops. Integrating this into a package manager could really help new users see the (perceived) quality of some of the software projects available to them -- most people only see GUIs. Integrate a user comment/review section for individual programs, and it becomes even more accessible.

I'm aware that this is already contained in a site like freshmeat, but the point would be to make a unified experience to the new/old user. Throw in bug submission, and it's even more useful. A single program to browse, view screenshots, review/comment and submit bugs for programs. You could even throw in a paypal donation, which either gets disbursed to everybody or specific projects. There's a lot that could be done, and this is one area that OSS really shines.

Re:A picture is NOT worth a thousand words...

[taupin]

Forgot about that checkbox, eh?

Re:A picture is NOT worth a thousand words...

[X0563511]

Sorry, you have forever been marked as a troll.

Re:Great, but needs guidelines.

[kv9]

On Windows, you can always make up a screenshot of any DLL file by opening it in Dependency Walker, and listing the functions exported by the DLL. I'm sure there has to be something similar for Linux.

man nm

# nm /lib/libz.so
0000cb88 A _DYNAMIC
0000cc44 A _GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_
[...]
00005f64 T zcalloc
00005f88 T zcfree
00005f28 T zlibVersion
#

Re:Great, but needs guidelines.

[ForumTroll]

You've just described tiling window managers. You might want to look at Xmonad, Awesome, DWM, StumpWM or WMII. I personally use Xmonad and definitely wouldn't go back to a traditional window manager.