[Shotwell] Quandry of choices and I need some general advice

[Murray Strome]

On Sun, 09 Oct 2011 Stephen R Douglas <stephenr.douglas at gmail.com> wrote:

I have digital photos scattered about on memory chips, on an old linux
computer and none on my newest computer listed below.

New Computer: Systems 76 Ion Nettop running Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick
Meerkat with a Gnome 2.32 desktop.   The hard drive is plenty large.

Shotwell version: 0.7.2-Oubuntu2 

I need to do something before something happens and I lose a bunch of
photos including photos taken on two trips to Turkey and Greece.  Also,
Full Circle online magazine for the Ubuntu community just published
Issue # 53, September 2011 with an article on Back Up Strategies, Part
1. Or I could take my computers into a Linux shop and have them do it.
I could make somebody wealthy I suppose.

I have not backed anything up in years and so I need to accomplish that
as soon as possible.

So I have some questions.  Once I have backed up everything should I do
the update to Ubuntu 11.04 via the Update Manager on the new computer?
I have resisted that update because I will end up with a Unity Desktop.
 
I resisted upgrading to 11.04 on my wife's computer using the Update Manager for because I did not want her to have to cope with the changes that would result with a Unity Desktop.  When I did the update, it actually told me it was reverting to standard Gnome and there were relatively few changes in look and feel. If you do end up with Unity, you can make sure that the traditional Gnome is installed and use that instead of Unity. An other option is to use the XUbuntu interface (XFCE) which is "lighter" than Gnome, KDE or Unity and I find especially useful on my small 7" eeePC notebook.


Not against it.  Just not sure I want to use it.  I am 69 years old and
not what you would call a wiz-band knowledgeable Linux user or mechanic
although I have used Ubuntu for many years and I have largely forgotten
how to use my old Win-XP that is on my old dual boot computer with
Ubuntu.

On the old computer with dual boot is: 
Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx LTS which is supported to April 2013.  I do not
believe I can update this computer to a later Ubuntu version due to its
age...mainboard installed in 2000. Gnome 2.30.2 is the desktop.
F-Spot and gThumb is installed.
 
I have Ubuntu 11.04 running just fine on a much older computer than yours. I would be willing to bet that it will work on yours. You can easily find out by booting with a live CD which you can download and burn either from Windows or Ubuntu. I have never tried gThumb so cannot comment on that. Shotwell seems to work OK. Personally, I prefer the concept of KPhotoAlbum, but have found stability issues with it at times. There are many features of Shotwell that I like so I actually have both installed and use them for different purposes.  KPhotoAlbum works fine with Gnome, even though it is designed for KDE. With Shotwell, I suggest that you always import your photos using the mode where you do not actually copy the photos from their original locations. When you do an import from your hard drive, it gives you those options.


Ubuntu Software Center shows that Shotwell version 0.5.0 is offered but
not supported by Conical on this edition of Gnome 2.30.2 and Ubuntu
10.04 Lucid.  Since everything in this old computer box has been
replaced with new gear except the mainboard and one 20 gig hard drive, I
hope to install a new mainboard with sata cabling and install the latest
either Mint 11 or Ubuntu...not sure which way I may go, but I am at that
cross roads once all my back-ups are completed.
 
I don't know enough about Mint. I expect that Ubuntu (or a variation such as XUbuntu) will probably work OK.  The main issues that I have with new mainboards are with sound, which is irrelevant for photo work.


On the other side is Win-XP with Picasa 3.8.0 installed.  Win-XP is up
to date with Ms-Windows Security program, (Hey, its free!), installed
and up to date.  There are photos on the Win-XP side taken with an old
Canon A-40.  I understand that there is a way to reach into the Win-XP
side from Ubuntu to retrieve those photos, but I do not know how. 
 
 
If Windows XP works OK on that computer, Ubuntu 11.04 will almost certainly work a lot better!
 
When you are in Ubuntu (at least 10.04 or higher) under System, you can use the Disk Utility to see all of your hard drives and partitions and mount your Windows one(s). Or, most likely, you will see icons on your desktop for each partition. Using either the disk utility, or by clicking (perhaps double click) on the icons on the desktop, you can mount and explore those drives. When you find your Windows C drive, you can locate your photos and copy them anywhere you wish, including an external USB drive.


Once I have completed all the back-ups I would really like to offer my
friends to see my photos either on CDs or DVDs as photo albums.  How
should I go about doing this using Shotwell?  I am not keen on using web
based sites to store my photos.  Nothing against it so much as I do not
want to pay for or lose control of my photos at some future date. 
 
You can do something really simple like just using a CD/DVD burning software package (I prefer K3b myself) to put all your photos onto the media.  For your own archiving purposes, I suggest that you use Gold Archive DVDs. They are a lot more expensive than regular ones, but are supposed to last at least 100 years. A few stores sell them, but not many. Most companies that do slide conversion provide the results on these disks, and most purchase them from Amazon.com. I believe that Shotwell (like Picasa which is also available for LINUX, but without facial recognition the last time I checked).
 
KodakGallery is one web based location which does not charge anything if you want to download your own photos from it. I know that most others do charge (e.g. SnapShot). I am not sure about Picasa.


There is a lot to think about and that is the reason I made this posting
to the list.  I am open to any and all advice before I do anything with
my photos.  Mint or Ubuntu or something else.  I want a system and
desktop that will remain friendly into my old age that I can live with
as my mental powers wither away to the final end.  It may not matter
what happens to the photos other than my offspring should enjoy making
that decision for themselves.
Thanks for any advice you may have.
  
I am finding that Ubuntu is getting more friendly (with the exception of Unity, which I don't like) with each release. I know some people prefer other flavours of LINUX. Ubuntu 11.04 with Gnome or KDE (or XUbuntu) will be supported for quite some time.  
 
I hope my suggestions help (rather than confuse). 
 
Murray