• Ulrich@feddit.org
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    1 month ago

    Handbrake has a GUI, and it’s relatively straightforward to use

    I downloaded it and it immediately did not work so I’m gonna have to disagree with you there, champ.

    You can also use ffmpeg on the CLI like so:

    I’ve lost far too many hours to the CLI. I don’t fall for that trick anymore.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      You do you, I guess. Those are incredibly simple commands I provided, and you can intuit pretty easily how to tweak them for other formats.

      I guess it’s up to you. You can gamble with random services online, or you can spend a few minutes and learn to use a tool that’s all but guaranteed to not have malware.

      • Ulrich@feddit.org
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        1 month ago

        or you can spend a few minutes

        This is just a fucking lie and I’m tired of hearing it. What did I just say?

        I’ve lost far too many hours to the CLI.

        I’ve tried to learn this shit. It’s a fucking rabbit hole. I type these commands, letter for letter, the terminal returns some completely useless error that provides me with no diagnostic information whatsoever, I spend hours searching and trying to understand why and come up empty-handed. I don’t have time for that anymore. I already have multiple jobs. It’s not how I prefer to spend my free time. And frankly, I don’t believe it anymore when software engineers feed me this bullshit.

        You know what those web services do? I just click a button and it does what the button says. Why is that so hard?

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          You know what those web services do? I just click a button and it does what the button says. Why is that so hard?

          There’s also a pretty big chance that they’ll do more than what the button says, like inject malware. That’s the whole point of the article.

          • Ulrich@feddit.org
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            1 month ago

            I understand that but that’s beside the point. It does what they advertise. It’s incredibly simple and easy to use. Why can no one make something comparable that’s FOSS?

            • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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              1 month ago

              They did, it’s often a CLI interface because it’s incredibly flexible. ffmpeg and imagemagick are quite easy for basic things.

              Building a cross-platform GUI is a pain, and hosting a website costs money. Building a cross-platform CLI is incredibly easy, which is why it’s so popular.

              Some of these tools have GUI frontends or alternatives, some don’t. The more niche you go, the harder it’ll be to find a reasonable GUI, and I consider PDF to JPEG pretty niche.

              • Ulrich@feddit.org
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                1 month ago

                CLI interface

                quite easy

                No. This does not compute.

                hosting a website costs money

                You don’t have to host a website. Just make software that works like the website and runs locally.

                I consider PDF to JPEG pretty niche.

                But not niche enough that these websites don’t exist.