There should be screenshots in package descriptions

[Alexandre Franke]

(Partly quoting someone from ubuntu-users mailing list)

It would be nice if the GUI Application Installer (i.e.: Synaptics) had a little screenshot of the app somewhere. This way it could be easier to choose similar-task apps and would be very useful for games.

It would also be an advantage over other OSs installers and a great thing to "convert" new users to GNU/Linux ;-)

I guess a small thumbnail to the side of the description, in .png format, won't take to much space...

[Sebastian Heinlein (glatzor)]

There are currently 1500 apps. So it would actually take some space.

[Alexandre Franke (afranke)]

Yeah that's right, so what about enabling descriptions to embed a remote image that would be grabbed from the Internet when available?
Something like an <img src="http://foo.com/bar/myscreenshot.png" /> tag...

[Jerome S. Gotangco (jsgotangco)]

It looks feasible when done in Main, but that's still a lot, also, the
thumbnails might be too small to be appreciated, so the best way is
that if a thumbnail is clicked, a larger picture would be loaded from
the internet, but that would entail gnome-app-install to open up a new
window or take over the window being used for the description.

On 10/26/06, Alexandre Franke <email address hidden> wrote:
> Yeah that's right, so what about enabling descriptions to embed a remote image that would be grabbed from the Internet when available?
> Something like an <img src="http://foo.com/bar/myscreenshot.png" /> tag...

--
Jerome Gotangco
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[Alexandre Franke (afranke)]

About the fact that it is a lot of work to gather screenshots for each app:
in fact I was talking about *enabling* the <img> tag, not making it mandatory. So afterwards, each package maintainer (or the person who provides the package description) could have the choice to add a screenshot.

About the fact that screenshots might be too small:
well, there might be cropped screenshots which would show significant parts of the app.

[Simon Ruggier (simon80)]

Considering the limited viewing area of the description area in synaptic, perhaps it would be better to keep screenshots separate from the description. They could still go somewhere in the control file, allowing package managers to decide how to present the screenshots to the user. I would personally prefer something where the control file contains a URL or URLs that point to high detail screenshots. One could choose to retrieve them when looking at a package in Synaptic, after reading the description. That sort of thing wouldn't add bloat, but would provide a quick aid in deciding whether to install a package or not. It would also be fairly simple to implement, if say, the URLs were merely opened in the default browser.

[Sebastian Heinlein (glatzor)]

Adding this to gnome-app-install is not the real problem.

But where should we setup the site? Is there a website enginge that could handle this? How to avoid duplicated work with other distributions?

Would be nice to have a central site:
 - supports localised screen shots and description
 - show distribution related information
 - provides a link to install the package (mvo is working on this)
 - support forums

And please no rating :)

[Simon Ruggier (simon80)]

Like I said in bug # 18683, I think that to start, it may make sense
to just have a field in the control file with a URL that could point
anywhere, just to give users an idea of what the program looks like
and saving them time. Of course, this could end up resulting in dead
screenshot URLs, but hey, better than nothing.

On 6/25/07, Sebastian Heinlein <email address hidden> wrote:
> Adding this to gnome-app-install is not the real problem.
>
> But where should we setup the site? Is there a website enginge that
> could handle this? How to avoid duplicated work with other
> distributions?
>
> Would be nice to have a central site:
> - supports localised screen shots and description
> - show distribution related information
> - provides a link to install the package (mvo is working on this)
> - support forums
>
> And please no rating :)
>
> --
> There should be screenshots in package descriptions
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/68072
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Christian Stefanescu (st-chris)]

I'm bumping this improvement request, because I also believe it would help a lot. Not only us ubuntu users, but also windows users considering to switch. The simple ways of Synaptic are a huge argument.

[Nanley Chery (nanoman)]

I found the answer to the screenshot-server problem surfing digg today. http://screenshots.debian.net/
Making this wish a reality would be a real plus for Ubuntu users =)

[Nanley Chery (nanoman)]

I think we should implement the way they handle screenshots too. The screenshots start out small, then enlarge very smoothly and professionally when you click on them.

[Michael Lustfield (michaellustfield)]

If you consider the space and time it already takes to keep track of what is already being kept track of - adding an image to each would take a massively larger amount. I for one one never consider using apt again if we were pushed into it.

The download of these updates would take an extremely long time as well - especially around release time....

On the other hand... A synaptic addon that downloaded the packages and stored them in it's own area would be abother approach that sounds a lot more intelligent.

Just my two cents.

[Nanley Chery (nanoman)]

@Micheal
I don't understand any of your concerns:
- The image will be displayed in synaptic (and/or add/remove) - not the cli apt backend.
- These images wouldn't be downloaded during updates - they will only be loaded if the user is browsing or searching for applications.
- Packages are not downloaded, just images displayed on demand (though caching can be investigated).

[Gaetan Nadon (memsize)]

Thank you for taking the time to make Ubuntu better. Since what you submitted is not really a bug, or a problem, but rather an idea to improve Ubuntu, I will mark the bug report as Confirmed and the package maintainer may set the importance to Wishlist.
You may post your idea in Ubuntu Brainstorm at http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/ where it can be discussed, voted by the community and reviewed by developers.
BugSquad

[Murat Gunes (mgunes)]

This is now implemented in Synaptic.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Fixed in gnome-app-install 0.5.60

[Michael Lustfield (michaellustfield)]

Can this be closed in adept?

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Yeah, I suppose Adept will never get this feature.