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Show HN: I completed shipping my desktop app

pimosa.app

131–140 of 304 posts

Re: Show HN: I completed shipping my desktop app

#131
post #117

I was wondering how you got around licensing issues, looks like you require the user to install ffmpeg and imagemagic separately which at least respects the license. Just a question seeing as you are targeting Mac as one of the platforms. Did you concider using AVFoundation for some functionality on MacOS? Similar with Microsoft Media Foundation on windows? Although both of those would have less supported formats tha…

It never occurred to me that ffmpeg’s license had these restrictions on use (I guess that should be obvious in retrospect, it’s LGPL licensed).

The ffmpeg docs have an straightforward list of things you have to do to link against ffmpeg and also be compliant with the license, which I found interesting:

https://ffmpeg.org/legal.html

Re: Show HN: I completed shipping my desktop app

#132
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This particular linguistic construct is called a pleonasm! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleonasm

One example the article notes is tuna fish . When I was a kid, tuna and tuna fish were two different things. Tuna was tuna straight out of the can, with nothing added. After all, the can says tuna right on it. Tuna fish was tuna mixed with mayonnaise and crunchy things like pickles and celery. It was what today would be called tuna salad. So if mom asked, "would you like a tuna sandwich for lunch?" we would reply "ca…

Never heard of tuna fish as a phrase, do you say salmon fish and anchovy fish? Genuine question.

Re: Show HN: I completed shipping my desktop app

#133
post #83

Looks great, beautiful landing page and it looks like a labor of love! - Most of the page titles are the (same)[1] which doesn't seem good for SEO. Each of the pages like "Pricing" or "Compress Your Video Files" should be differently named. - The "video compressor" tool would be much more useful if you could enter a target file size. This is a frequent use case, if you want to send a video over email or social media…

Does SEO really matter still? I have seen a few videos that show how the SEO algorithm works a few months ago, at least googles, and you basically can't optimize in that regard.

SEO very much does count. And on site optimisation is the easiest return on investment as it's generally not a lot of work. few hours of work can bring you tons of clients.

Re: Show HN: I completed shipping my desktop app

#134
post #127

While you are not too far into selling - a word of advice. Switch to offering a year of free updates and charge a small fee after that. Trust me. You will coverge to this scheme sooner or later, so do it now. - Standalone Windows installer is a must. Windows Store is still a deserted wasteland and is not a default choice for the vast majority of Windows users. You are losing a ton of users over this. - ffmpeg and oth…

The problem with distributing standalone installers on Windows is that all non-popular apps are immediately regarded as malware by Windows Defender unless you go through the horrendous process of signing your app, which requires obtaining a certificate (which also requires forming a company that is not an LLC) and waiting more than a month while navigating multiple rounds of bureaucracy. I’ve done it for my app, and it was a terrible experience. Microsoft should study how Apple handles signing and notarization.

EDIT: spelling.

Re: Show HN: I completed shipping my desktop app

#135
I’ll try to not be dismissive of the labour, though it’s kind of funny (or actually natural) that the heavy lifting libraries that only a few can actually write are open and free, while the shallow wrappers that everyone can write are paid and closed.

Decades ago we were calling out these software and now it’s the norm.

Another example along the line: I wanted to extract a frame from a video on iOS, it’s impossible with the built-in tools (screenshot aside) and found that someone built a paid app only for that.

I tell you where we’re heading, we’re screwed.

Re: Show HN: I completed shipping my desktop app

#136
post #135

I’ll try to not be dismissive of the labour, though it’s kind of funny (or actually natural) that the heavy lifting libraries that only a few can actually write are open and free, while the shallow wrappers that everyone can write are paid and closed. Decades ago we were calling out these software and now it’s the norm. Another example along the line: I wanted to extract a frame from a video on iOS, it’s impossible w…

I think you are underestimating how difficult making a great UI is (although I haven’t used this application so I can’t say if it’s great or not).

Re: Show HN: I completed shipping my desktop app

#137
post #135

I’ll try to not be dismissive of the labour, though it’s kind of funny (or actually natural) that the heavy lifting libraries that only a few can actually write are open and free, while the shallow wrappers that everyone can write are paid and closed. Decades ago we were calling out these software and now it’s the norm. Another example along the line: I wanted to extract a frame from a video on iOS, it’s impossible w…

While i'm with you in principle, over the years i've learned that we should not talk down good UI/UX, if that's what the wrapper adds. It's a crucial component to the value of a piece of software for the end user.

Re: Show HN: I completed shipping my desktop app

#139

Looks great, beautiful landing page and it looks like a labor of love! - Most of the page titles are the (same)[1] which doesn't seem good for SEO. Each of the pages like "Pricing" or "Compress Your Video Files" should be differently named. - The "video compressor" tool would be much more useful if you could enter a target file size. This is a frequent use case, if you want to send a video over email or social media…

> beautiful landing page

I disagree. Any page that sports a big "buy now" button without even scrolling but has at that point not even shown me a single screenshot will have a hard time catching my attention. I didn't look further.

Re: Show HN: I completed shipping my desktop app

#140
post #135

I’ll try to not be dismissive of the labour, though it’s kind of funny (or actually natural) that the heavy lifting libraries that only a few can actually write are open and free, while the shallow wrappers that everyone can write are paid and closed. Decades ago we were calling out these software and now it’s the norm. Another example along the line: I wanted to extract a frame from a video on iOS, it’s impossible w…

What is more, many people expect that software that they are trying will be open source and free. It makes really hard to create a new desktop app that is paid as a solo founder. Congratulations!
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