The very first thing I look for is license. If it's not gpl, preferably gplv3+, or a similar compat license like apache 2, it is highly likely I will immediatel

The very first thing I look for is license. If it's not gpl, preferably gplv3+, or a similar compat license like apache 2, it is highly likely I will immediately close the tab and move on. The next thing I look for is what language it was written in, closely followed by when the last commit was, then at how well done the documentation/website is, the goal being to get a general understanding of how much the dev cares about the little things. Then I tend to add it to my list of interesting things and will compare it to alternatives in the same category. If after being compared to existing similar solutions, if still seems worthy, it gets tested, and if still deemed worthy it goes in the main list of my stack of software.