this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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I'm making a FOSS all-in-one file converter app - looking for opinions! (files.catbox.moe)
submitted 2 weeks ago by popcar2@programming.dev to c/opensource@programming.dev
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I'm currently working on a file converter app that lets you easily convert your files in bulk without needing to mess around with 500 settings or confusing command-line apps. It's mostly a replacement for all those "convert X to Y" websites.

This is just a front-end for ffmpeg and imagemagick, but the goal is to make something so simple even my parents could use without uploading sensitive files to shady websites on the internet. I've looked around, and I found all the local GUI converters like Handbrake are unwieldy to use, especially if you just want to convert in bulk.

The project is still very early, but I'd like some feedback:

  1. Does anyone think this project is worth finishing, or are there too many GUI file converters out there already?

  2. What do you think about the UI so far?

Cheers.

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[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

my idea of a good GUI

Examples?

[–] TriangleSpecialist@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If I feel like trolling a bit, I'd say this:

But in all seriousness, I just don't like the modern minimalistic styles and sliding animations and whatnot. I would not push something like the image above onto a user, but I'd be perfectly happy using that, personally.

For an actual answer, I've been getting into trackers lately on what little free time I have and am really enjoying milkytracker's interface:

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Dang... Thanks for the reminder about Milkytracker. I gotta dig into that... Also, I'm fine with that top GUI as well, haha! Unclear boundaries are visually tricky to me, too.

[–] TriangleSpecialist@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Yup there is a bit of that, and also for me, although I readily admit the above is a bit cluttered, there is something nice about having the information laid out in a plane rather than nested in a hierarchy of menus.

Obviously, that's not always possible, but I find sometimes that, for the sake of each pane appearing "simple" and "clean", I need to hold more context in my head of where things are, and how deeply nested they are.