Ubuntu Replaces F-Spot With Shotwell 361
climenole writes "Finally! The much discussed F-Spot vs. Shotwell battle is over. The new default image organizer app for Ubuntu Maverick 10.10 is going to be Shotwell. This is a much-needed change; F-Spot was simply not enough. Most of the times when I tried F-Spot, it just keeps crashing on me. Shotwell on the other hand feels a lot more solid and is better integrated with the GNOME desktop. Shotwell is also completely devoid of Mono."
um who cares? (Score:5, Informative)
So the summary is just copy/paste from some blog.
Gnome made the change, not Ubuntu.
That version of Shotwell has been out for well over a month.
This is not news, for nerds or for anyone.
Re:If someone integrates F-spot into gnome..... (Score:3, Informative)
Shouldn't it then be named G-spot? If a program of such a name were to exist, would any male users be able to find it, let alone use it?
G-spot [headbands.com]
Re:Isn't it all about options? (Score:3, Informative)
Gqview (Score:3, Informative)
or what ever they call it now
Re:Next on the list... (Score:4, Informative)
Not to toot my own horn, but that's Pinta (http://pinta-project.com/).
It's not ready yet to be a default application, but it's quickly getting closer. :)
Re:who cares if it uses mon or not (Score:5, Informative)
I just downloaded shotwell from the PPA in the blog and here is my little test..
I made a folder with some random images. I put all the images in a sub folder and made another subfolder with an extra copy of one of the images in a different folder. I did this because this best represents my photo folder. It has lots of images in different places and some of them are the same image because an early version of f-spot messed it up.
I then loaded up shotwell and did an import, then got this error..
The 2 photos that it successfully imported were the same photo. F-Spot has a feature to not import the same photo twice even if the filename differs which is handy. For me this is no where near f-spot technically.
It can't even import PNGs. What use is an photo manager that can't import images..
Re:Great, now get rid of XSANE (Score:2, Informative)
Works with my camera (Logitech 9000) and my scanner (Canon u1240n aka Lide30) without any issues. The scanner was a nice surprise because installing the windows drivers for that was voodoo. Yes, Canon and Linux, it just works (tm). (I really didn't expect it to.)
Re:Curing Mono (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, I do.
Microsoft has a lot invested in a lot of things other than .NET, so I think you're making a really large leap here to assume that they're talking about .NET here. Every major software company out there has invested into different things, and they'll protect their IP up to the point where it no longer benefits them to restrict it.
It's in Microsoft's best interests to allow people to use .NET and C# everywhere, period. They've already stated that they're applying the Community Promise to their patents so that they won't sue people over them.
Mono, the framework, is fantastic and it's really sad that RMS and the BoycottNovell tards are spreading so much FUD over it. And that some of you here on Slashdot are perpetuating that.
Last year at the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit, Cody Russell [gnome.org] asked Richard Stallman if there was anything that Microsoft could do to ease his fears of patent threats, and he said that there was. Microsoft could come out and publicly state that .NET was open to use and promise not to sue people over it. Days later they did exactly that [technet.com] and Richard did not change his opinion.
Re:Isn't it all about options? (Score:5, Informative)
No it's not. Ubuntu has never been a distribution for Free software activists. Ubuntu has always been about "linux for humans". That's why there is always fuss over the nvidia drivers, that's why they made a fuss over the firefox branding. If your primary concern is with freedom then you should be on a different distribution such as Gnewsense or Debian. Ubuntu however has always been about ease of use over making things difficult and just so we're clear here.. Both F-Spot and Shotwell are Free Open Source Software, it's just that some people don't like using mono.
The REAL question however is, does this new Photo Manager provide an adequate replacement for the Ubuntu user and the answer is "not yet". It doesn't import certain images, it imports duplicates, its UI is not that great compared to f-spot and it has less import/export options then f-spot. Regardless of how you feel about Mono it sucks for Ubuntu's target audience which doesn't care about Mono or C#, they care about if they can use it.
I think the only news worthy part of this is that it's a ridiculous decision that they're considering to switch to an inferior product by default. Add on the fact that they removed GIMP by default from Lucid it means that there will now be no way by default to edit images in Ubuntu for the next release that won't open in Shotwell. It's just completely stupid and I doubt Canonical will stick with this decision. Ubuntu is popular because they don't do this kind of thing.
Re:huh? (Score:5, Informative)
There is this discussion from 2009..
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2009-December/010173.html [ubuntu.com]
and this one from May 2010..
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-desktop/2010-May/002569.html [ubuntu.com]
Apart from that I can't find anything about a decision being made.
Re:On the other hand... (Score:1, Informative)
It's "four or fewer", dumbass.
Re:Gqview (Score:4, Informative)
geeqie is what it's called under the new Author. Crappy name but it really is the best gtk image viewer.
Re:who cares if it uses mon or not (Score:3, Informative)
Re:who cares if it uses mon or not (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Features (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Great, now get rid of XSANE (Score:5, Informative)
10.04 has simplescan nice and clean and easy to use. Does what's needed acquires images and uses libsane.
5 minutes with shotwell
Shotwell photo manager is a very simple and generally fast viewer, for some reason rotating a picture to the right is a lot faster than the same operation to the left.
Theres no keyboard shortcuts for the rotate feature instead its mouse orientated using the right mouse button a lot.
There is an enhance command but what it does I don't know.
other tools are available once you select a single photo for editing.
It's crop tool is pretty good but other adjustments are pretty basic and easy to make pictures appear worse.
The export to picassa feature is useful too.
shotwell isn't as good as f-spot but doesnt use mono
picassa wipes the floor with both of them but isn't native using wine.
picassa is my preference but shotwell can catch up its also available on windows
Re:who cares if it uses mon or not (Score:3, Informative)
It is relevant because the reason they took GIMP out by default in Lucid was because people can edit images in f-spot. Now if they're replacing f-spot as well you can no longer by default edit PNG files and whatever else Shotwell doesn't support. That includes screen shots you take.
Re:Features (Score:3, Informative)
f-spot 0.7.0 - Jun 16 2010 - Full Steam Ahead!
So it looks promising in the short term. Perhaps there's been a bit of pressure on them? Too little too late?
Re:Features (Score:2, Informative)
Have you tried Digikam [digikam.org]? The interface is a bit complex... but if you use ufraw, that shouldn't daunt you. (-: It also supports external editors ("Open with..."), but for most edits I find it's built in editor to be superior and fast (cropping, colour & white balance correction, etc).