

From iPhoto to Dropbox: from feature rich to future proof. - vrypan
http://blog.vrypan.net/2013/5/20/leaving-iphoto-for-dropbox/

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jmathai
Disclaimer: lead developer of Trovebox / OpenPhoto

I wish more folks would make this distinction. Going one step farther I set
out to create a layer on top of Dropbox that was optimized for photos (and
videos).

Essentially, give a proper photo API to the files in your Dropbox. Things like
date searches, plotting photos on a map, etc.

Then another step beyond that. Migrate between any storage service without
losing a single feature, keeping every URL in tact and a mobile app which
continues to work as if nothing happened. Dropbox is great but it isn't future
proof either.

Then the last (and probably most important) open source it all.

<https://github.com/photo>

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vrypan
I don't consider dropbox to be future proof, it's the filesystem. I could
easily replace dropbox with google drive, ownCloud, or BitTorrent Sync.

I tried OpenPhoto a couple of months ago, but I was left with the impression
that it was optimised for photos and video didn't work so well.

~~~
jmathai
Replacing one file system with another is significantly easier if you have an
abstraction layer (which also happens to include a lot of features).

We just started working on video support so you were left with the correct
impression. We released 4.0 on trovebox.com a few months ago and should have
it available as a certified build for self installation this week.

It's not perfect, of course, but we're making tremendous progress.

~~~
vrypan
Great! I'll give it a try.

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jason_tko
This is a great article. After holding off on switching to automatic Dropbox
iPhone camera uploads for months, finally I switched it on as a test and
immediately wondered why I had waited.

Very impressed with the OpenPhoto initiative too.

After struggling with the increasingly slower speed of iPhoto (similar to the
article author), pretty wrappers on top of file systems/Dropbox look like the
foreseeable future of photo library management.

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davehyndman
"When I click “photos” I can see ALL the photos that I’ve stored in dropbox
-all, as in ALL, no matter where they are stored, and there’s also a time line
on the right, making it easy to jump to specific dates!"

I wonder if this is something new that Dropbox is rolling out in stages. I
still only see Photos added via Camera Upload.

And yes, I'm a paying Dropbox customer, so that's not the distinction.

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reeses
I like Adobe Lightroom because it's transparent at the filesystem level. It
keeps a separate catalog, but you can point it at any directory for photos.

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cweiss
Is there a workflow that would allow you to import the images via "Camera
Upload" functionality to allow for additional free space?

