I’m interested to see how this project turns out.
Honestly, Adobe is is one of two main reasons I have not had success switching (back) to Linux. The secret sauce with Adobe Lightroom (Classic and CC) is the ability to take pics from any device (phone, old DSLR w/manual imports, downloads) and edit from my phone, or desktop seamlessly regardless of source, all in same catalogue, with non-destructive edits sync’d bidirectionally. I also get all originals sync’d tho main computer to merge in with my overall backup strategy. None of the open source offerings have this, though I keep checking in on it every few years. I’m sure Darktable is great - it may even be better than LR, but without the easy interoperability/synchronization, it’s not viable in my situation. I would not expect a solution like this to be free. I’m happy to pay for it. If Adobe offered real Linux compatibility, I’d pay for it in a heartbeat (and would gladly switch to a different company if it existed).
For video other graphic stuff, I can live with the silos and happily run Shotcut (or KDENLive) and Krita.
If it wasn’t for my other windows dependency, I’d switch and get by with running Lightroom virtually, and put up with the loss of other applications/features (on the Linux host) that I can live without.
(My other dependency is NI Maschine (music production). The hardware - and the feature set I’ve paid for and use simply won’t run on Linux. I briefly considered running it virtually in Windows but ended up giving my head a shake because of the Rube Goldberg machine I’d end up making to have anywhere close to the functionality I have now).
I’d be thrilled to switch back to Linux (I used it for years as a daily driver).
Yes - it certainly is weaker than the desktop (classic) LR, but it matches the mobile app quite well (and syncs to the desktop). This is the secret sauce. I can do simple smartphone pics, edit them and they will merge with main catalog. I can further refine on desktop (or vice versa) and it all syncs, and my originals stay with the desktop (the further backed up via whatever mechanism I want).
I applaud the idea of interoperability for the FOSS applications, but pulling this particular feat (the use case I describe above) off is non-trivial and requires enterprise level architecture and coordination. It’s a very different type of challenge than making a great non-destructive editor with local organization. I don’t mind paying for this sort of thing, but I wish it was officially offered in Linux-land. Wine is great (if it works) but it injects a substantial risk of breaking as applications get updated.
Would love to run Linux everywhere, but there needs to be official support from some key companies for that to happen. It’s a difficult thing for them to justify (rightly or wrongly). I don’t think open-source alone will solve things. Unfortunately…
Oh well - I got off topic here. But I was toying with trying another switch to Linux just this weekend and this is front of mind…
