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Ask Slashdot: Best Software For Image Organization?
Wycliffe writes Like many people, I am starting to get a huge collection of digital photos from family vacations, etc. I am looking for some software that allows me to rate/tag my own photos in a quick way. I really don't want to spend the time tagging a bunch of photos and then be locked into a single piece of software, so what is the best software to help organize and tag photos so that I can quickly find highlights without being locked into that software for life? I would prefer open source to prevent lock-in and also prefer Linux but could do Windows if necessary.
Keep It Simple
This is something you want to work for decades.
Don't get fancy.
Don't use image organization software that will stop being supported or become useless with an OS update that kills off legacy software.
Just name your files well.
Establish a format for naming.
Organize images in directories / folders.
Use the operating system search feature.
K.I.S.S.
I'm confused. What you're saying is self-contradictory. Why would he install Windows on that computer, when systemd is already installed? Systemd is pretty much Windows, at least from the user's perspective. They both share the same monolithic, non-UNIX philosophy, leading to the same user experience. Why would he install Windows just to get the same experience he's already getting?
I second this vote for using the file system to organise your images. This post may give me away to some of my friends, but I create folders using this template:
[YYYY-MM-DD] Descriptive Name of Trip or Event
This allows me to have multiple groups of images on a given day, say a lunchtime function and a dinner party.
For groups that span multiple days I do this:
[YYYY-MM-XX] Descriptive Name of Multi-Day Event
If I go on a big trip then what I do is create sub folders with the date (using the same format) for each event or grouping or experience that I captured.
If I have a folder of photos and want to make a small sub-selection. I make a folder called "pick" and put them in there. I may also do a low-res copy of that folder (and call it "web pick") and then I can email them easily to friends. I don't bother with links or any other garbage, 50-500MB of duplication doesn't matter a damn, and the backup software has de-duplication so doesn't care either.
Finally, I've done this for almost 15 years and it's basically worked perfectly for me and I have a fantastic collection of photos going all the way back.
Sorry, this the actual finally. Be very wary of *any* automated system based on a database or tagging system. The problem is that while initially they may seem awesome and great time savers, you will ultimately want to group [at least some of] the photos based on social, aesthetic and political assessments, and no automatic system can ever handle that.
The OP asked for a software solution, and your response is that he/she needs to become a database and Python programmer. How clueless can you be?