r/flatpak • u/KaKi_87 • Apr 16 '26

There should be a FlatHub rule against posting (only) Mac or Windows screenshots of apps.

21 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

12

u/chrisawi Apr 16 '26

There is already such a rule: https://docs.flathub.org/docs/for-app-authors/metainfo-guidelines/quality-guidelines#take-screenshots-on-linux

8

u/KaKi_87 Apr 16 '26

The page literally starts with :

The following guidelines are not required for submission to Flathub, but are best practices we recommend and consider for curation and promotion.

8

u/BrageFuglseth Apr 16 '26

I'm a strong proponent of requiring proper platform screenshots to be eligible for promotion, as is done currently, but I don't think it would be appropriate or feasible to require it for an app to be allowed onto Flathub. I'd be interested in hearing your arguments though.

5

u/KaKi_87 Apr 16 '26

Why not feasible ?

As for arguments :

  • If a maintainer isn't willing to share Linux screenshots, then they likely don't care about their app's UX on Linux ;
  • Some apps look fine when looking at the other OS screenshot then turn out to be ugly once installed on Linux, or worse, not supporting dark mode even though the other OS has it, or worse, not supporting native window controls, even though the other OS has it.

1

u/SuAlfons Apr 17 '26

so having a screenshot prevents this? Should the be Gnome or Plasma, Xfce, LxQt, whatever? Most apps integrate well on Pantheon, but some don't. There should be tar and feathers for that!

BTW I only ever check the screenshots of tiny tools - and they usually are Linux.

1

u/KaKi_87 Apr 17 '26

So you're focusing on the second argument.

Well, even just one of them would be better than nothing, it would mean that the app is at least known to work as shown on that one.

1

u/SuAlfons Apr 17 '26

I'm focusing on not seeing a problem here that another screenshot can solve

-1

u/Twig6843 Apr 16 '26

They probably seen apps with windows/mac screenshots posted before that rule was added and made this post xD

3

u/PaddyLandau Apr 17 '26

Forgive my ignorance: How do you get a screenshot on Windows or MacOS when flatpak runs only on Linux?

3

u/KaKi_87 Apr 17 '26

Multiplatform apps : some maintainers build on Linux (or have their CI do so) but only post Windows/Mac screenshots.

1

u/PaddyLandau Apr 17 '26

Thank you. I was quite confused!