Some considerations concerning running digiKam on a Mac

[wilfried]

I have been using digiKam for 10 years, starting with version 0.10.0 in 2005, under GNU/Linux, and, from the beginning, found it to be the very best foto management program for my needs. (Thanks a lot to the developers for this outstanding software!)

In August 2012 I bought a 15" Macbook Pro with retina display (because of the retina display), and it was a revelation in terms of hardware quality, speed, stability and, above all, brilliancy, accuracy and sharpness of the display. Never before had I been able to admire my (and other) photographs in such perfectness (and also, had never before so clearly perceived the defects of many of them...). Since then, a normal full HD display seems just coarse to me.

But - digiKam was (and is) not available for the Mac OS X, at least not as a native build, like e. g. Gimp and RawTherapee. And iPhoto, compared with digiKam, I found to be just a nice toy. So what I did was to install Linux, more exactly: KUbuntu, on my Macbook beside Mac OS X. This worked well, with a few drawbacks like suspend mode, which never worked, and the behaviour of the trackpad and mouse, which reacted, under KUbuntu, not as fast and exact as under Mac OS X. Also, since I used the native resolution of the retina display (because I wanted to be able to see my photographs with their real resolution), text and symbols in the menu and text boxes were really tiny, so that you almost needed a magnifying glass for them.

I put the pictures on a separate non-journaled hfs+ partition which could be read and written both by Mac OS X and KUbuntu. So far, so good. But the great disadvantage of this method was, that I needed to shutdown Mac OS X, reboot the computer and start KUbuntu, when I wanted to work with digiKam, and vice versa, when I wanted to do other work under Mac OS X. And I do need Mac OS X, above all for Sigma Photo Pro, which is the raw converter for my Sigma cameras ond only available for Windows and Mac.

When the iMac 5K appeared on the market last autumn, it was clear to me that this was just what I wanted. In February I bought it, and again, it was a revelation to me: now finally I was able to see my photographs in full size in their original resolution. The quality and brilliancy of this monitor is just overwhelming. This time I did not even try to install also Linux beside Mac OS X, but, instead, installed Arch Linux with just the KDE base packages and digiKam with all it's dependencies in a virtual machine (VirtualBox), and this works perfect. My pictures are in the pictures directory which I made accessible from inside the virtual machine. This way I can, using digiKam, directly read from and write to my photographs on the Mac partition. Running VirtualBox under Mac OS X ist fast (provided you have a fast CPU and enough main memory) and stable, and digiKam under Arch Linux works 100% reliable.

Just out of curiosity, I also tried another possibility: installing digiKam with macports directly under Mac OS X. This proved to be rather disappointing. In the first place, the GUI looks a bit quaint; some elements overlap which should not overlap, some text boxes are too high, and the import from camera does not work at all: digiKam does not recognize an attached camera automatically, and it crashes every time I click on import > [camera name]. Moreover, just installing digiKam and all it's dependencies with macports costs nearly 6 GB of mass storage, plus 5,8 GB for XCode, which you need in order to use macports. My Arch Linux installation with digiKam under VirtualBox needs 5,6 GB. This is a waste of 6 GB of mass storage for an unsatisfactory result.

So the virtual machine solution is, for me, clearly the  - no, not the best, but the second best. The best one would be to have a native build of digiKam for Mac OS X. Or even better: a combination of GNU/Linux and high quality hardware, which would work as well as the combination of Apple hardware and Mac OS X. But as far as I know, there is, at the moment, only one other 5K monitor available, and that one alone costs a lot more than the complete iMac 5K. I am no admirer of Apple, but I very much like some of their products - they are unsurpassed in terms of stableness, reliability and usability.

Wilfried Käding
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[Veaceslav Munteanu-2]

You had a lot to say, sir :)

Well, only thing that can I say is that marvellous machine cost 3000
euro and majority of people don't have this amount of money, or don't
want to spent that much for something which will be obsolete in 2-3
years...

From developers only Gilles has a Mac, but it doesn't actively use it
to develop. A big majority of commiters use Arch Linux, including me.

Mac is getting less attention because it's rare, and Windows is also
neglected because it's hard it's nightmare to compile...

We are not even allowed to have Mac virtual machines, so support is
even harder...

If you are an active digiKam on Mac user, you might fill in more
reports about whats wrong with digiKam on mac, and the more community
effort, the better it gets, this is the Linux way..


On Sat, Mar 28, 2015 at 8:29 PM, Wilfried Käding
<[hidden email]> wrote:

> I have been using digiKam for 10 years, starting with version 0.10.0 in 2005, under GNU/Linux, and, from the beginning, found it to be the very best foto management program for my needs. (Thanks a lot to the developers for this outstanding software!)
>
> In August 2012 I bought a 15" Macbook Pro with retina display (because of the retina display), and it was a revelation in terms of hardware quality, speed, stability and, above all, brilliancy, accuracy and sharpness of the display. Never before had I been able to admire my (and other) photographs in such perfectness (and also, had never before so clearly perceived the defects of many of them...). Since then, a normal full HD display seems just coarse to me.
>
> But - digiKam was (and is) not available for the Mac OS X, at least not as a native build, like e. g. Gimp and RawTherapee. And iPhoto, compared with digiKam, I found to be just a nice toy. So what I did was to install Linux, more exactly: KUbuntu, on my Macbook beside Mac OS X. This worked well, with a few drawbacks like suspend mode, which never worked, and the behaviour of the trackpad and mouse, which reacted, under KUbuntu, not as fast and exact as under Mac OS X. Also, since I used the native resolution of the retina display (because I wanted to be able to see my photographs with their real resolution), text and symbols in the menu and text boxes were really tiny, so that you almost needed a magnifying glass for them.
>
> I put the pictures on a separate non-journaled hfs+ partition which could be read and written both by Mac OS X and KUbuntu. So far, so good. But the great disadvantage of this method was, that I needed to shutdown Mac OS X, reboot the computer and start KUbuntu, when I wanted to work with digiKam, and vice versa, when I wanted to do other work under Mac OS X. And I do need Mac OS X, above all for Sigma Photo Pro, which is the raw converter for my Sigma cameras ond only available for Windows and Mac.
>
> When the iMac 5K appeared on the market last autumn, it was clear to me that this was just what I wanted. In February I bought it, and again, it was a revelation to me: now finally I was able to see my photographs in full size in their original resolution. The quality and brilliancy of this monitor is just overwhelming. This time I did not even try to install also Linux beside Mac OS X, but, instead, installed Arch Linux with just the KDE base packages and digiKam with all it's dependencies in a virtual machine (VirtualBox), and this works perfect. My pictures are in the pictures directory which I made accessible from inside the virtual machine. This way I can, using digiKam, directly read from and write to my photographs on the Mac partition. Running VirtualBox under Mac OS X ist fast (provided you have a fast CPU and enough main memory) and stable, and digiKam under Arch Linux works 100% reliable.
>
> Just out of curiosity, I also tried another possibility: installing digiKam with macports directly under Mac OS X. This proved to be rather disappointing. In the first place, the GUI looks a bit quaint; some elements overlap which should not overlap, some text boxes are too high, and the import from camera does not work at all: digiKam does not recognize an attached camera automatically, and it crashes every time I click on import > [camera name]. Moreover, just installing digiKam and all it's dependencies with macports costs nearly 6 GB of mass storage, plus 5,8 GB for XCode, which you need in order to use macports. My Arch Linux installation with digiKam under VirtualBox needs 5,6 GB. This is a waste of 6 GB of mass storage for an unsatisfactory result.
>
> So the virtual machine solution is, for me, clearly the  - no, not the best, but the second best. The best one would be to have a native build of digiKam for Mac OS X. Or even better: a combination of GNU/Linux and high quality hardware, which would work as well as the combination of Apple hardware and Mac OS X. But as far as I know, there is, at the moment, only one other 5K monitor available, and that one alone costs a lot more than the complete iMac 5K. I am no admirer of Apple, but I very much like some of their products - they are unsurpassed in terms of stableness, reliability and usability.
>
> Wilfried Käding
> _______________________________________________
> Digikam-users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users

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[Alan Pater]

Thanks for sharing Wilfried! I'd be curious if the upcoming Ubuntu
15.04 with Unity handles such a nice screen?


On Sat, Mar 28, 2015 at 4:58 PM, Veaceslav Munteanu
<[hidden email]> wrote:
> You had a lot to say, sir :)
>
> Well, only thing that can I say is that marvellous machine cost 3000
> euro and majority of people don't have this amount of money, or don't
> want to spent that much for something which will be obsolete in 2-3
> years...
>

My (25MHz) 1st laptop back in 1993 only cost $2000 and then I spend
another $600 for a few extra Mb of ram ...  $3800 in today’s dollars
...

A 5k Mac is a steal in comparison! And cheaper then a lot of cameras ...

>
> On Sat, Mar 28, 2015 at 8:29 PM, Wilfried Käding
> <[hidden email]> wrote:
>> I have been using digiKam for 10 years, starting with version 0.10.0 in 2005, under GNU/Linux, and, from the beginning, found it to be the very best foto management program for my needs. (Thanks a lot to the developers for this outstanding software!)
>>
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[Alan Pater]

On Sat, Mar 28, 2015 at 2:29 PM, Wilfried Käding
<[hidden email]> wrote:
> I am no admirer of Apple, but I very much like some of their products
> they are unsurpassed in terms of stability, reliability and usability.

Agreed that the hardware is cool, but I find OS X somewhat unintuitive
compared to a modern Linux UI like Ubuntu Unity.
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[wilfried]

Yes, 3000€ is a lot of money, but then, I have spent quite a lot of money for my cameras and other equipment, too. And I think what I got for it is worth it. Even pictures from an older 6 megapixel camera have a resolution you cannot display 1:1 on a normal full HD display, and modern cameras have 12, 14, 20 or more megapixel. With the iMac 5K I am, for the first time ever, able to view my photos in their full native resolution, and this is what I have been waiting for for years. And also, I am now able to use the possibilities of digiKam better than ever before.

I just wanted to point out the most convenient way to combine digiKam with a Mac. For me, this is the combination of the best photo management software with the (currently) best hardware for this purpose.

> Am 28.03.2015 um 22:58 schrieb Veaceslav Munteanu <[hidden email]>:
>
> Well, only thing that can I say is that marvellous machine cost 3000
> euro and majority of people don't have this amount of money, or don't
> want to spent that much for something which will be obsolete in 2-3
> years...
>

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[Gilles Caulier-4]

In my case, as i'm macbook pro user, digiKam is installed through Macports.

Since recent OSX update, i see Qt/KDE widget completly broken. I don't
know why. I susupect that widget style used by KDE have not been
tested under mac. In the past, this problem doesn't exist.

This comfort me in the idea to have a digiKam fully non dependant of
KDE (using optional compilation rules). This will help a lots to
support non Linux OS.

Pure Qt applications as VLC, VirtualBox GUI, Clementine, etc, work
very well under Linux.

So, this goal is already in the way through Qt5 digiKam port. 60% of
KDE dependencies are removed. It sill hard dependencies yet. This can
take a while to make it a s optional.

Gilles Caulier

2015-03-29 12:35 GMT+02:00 Wilfried Käding <[hidden email]>:

> Yes, 3000€ is a lot of money, but then, I have spent quite a lot of money for my cameras and other equipment, too. And I think what I got for it is worth it. Even pictures from an older 6 megapixel camera have a resolution you cannot display 1:1 on a normal full HD display, and modern cameras have 12, 14, 20 or more megapixel. With the iMac 5K I am, for the first time ever, able to view my photos in their full native resolution, and this is what I have been waiting for for years. And also, I am now able to use the possibilities of digiKam better than ever before.
>
> I just wanted to point out the most convenient way to combine digiKam with a Mac. For me, this is the combination of the best photo management software with the (currently) best hardware for this purpose.
>
>> Am 28.03.2015 um 22:58 schrieb Veaceslav Munteanu <[hidden email]>:
>>
>> Well, only thing that can I say is that marvellous machine cost 3000
>> euro and majority of people don't have this amount of money, or don't
>> want to spent that much for something which will be obsolete in 2-3
>> years...
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Digikam-users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users

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[wilfried]

> Am 29.03.2015 um 15:01 schrieb Gilles Caulier <[hidden email]>:

> So, this goal is already in the way through Qt5 digiKam port. 60% of
> KDE dependencies are removed.


This is encouraging news. In fact, I believe that a native build of digiKam for Mac OS X could be a huge success, since there is no alternative to digiKam as a serious photo management software under Mac OS X. iPhoto, as I said, is just a nice toy, and the test reports about the new Fotos for OS X app do not sound as if it was worth while to spend 80 Euro for that.

> Since recent OSX update, i see Qt/KDE widget completly broken. I don't
> know why. I susupect that widget style used by KDE have not been
> tested under mac. In the past, this problem doesn't exist.


I did not have this problem. Two days ago, I installed the new digiKam version (4.8.0) from macports, and, apart from a few difficulties with missing libraries during the installation, which I had to install separately, nearly everything I tested worked quite well. Only the import from camera did not work at all. My OS X version is 10.10.2.

Wilfried Käding

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[Veaceslav Munteanu-2]

Apple make impossible to develop outside having a Mac.

They don't allow even virtual machines on other than mac hardware and
other versions of hackintosh are pain to install or use.

Can't do anything about this.

On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 5:10 PM, Wilfried Käding
<[hidden email]> wrote:

>> Am 29.03.2015 um 15:01 schrieb Gilles Caulier <[hidden email]>:
>
>> So, this goal is already in the way through Qt5 digiKam port. 60% of
>> KDE dependencies are removed.
>
>
> This is encouraging news. In fact, I believe that a native build of digiKam for Mac OS X could be a huge success, since there is no alternative to digiKam as a serious photo management software under Mac OS X. iPhoto, as I said, is just a nice toy, and the test reports about the new Fotos for OS X app do not sound as if it was worth while to spend 80 Euro for that.
>
>> Since recent OSX update, i see Qt/KDE widget completly broken. I don't
>> know why. I susupect that widget style used by KDE have not been
>> tested under mac. In the past, this problem doesn't exist.
>
>
> I did not have this problem. Two days ago, I installed the new digiKam version (4.8.0) from macports, and, apart from a few difficulties with missing libraries during the installation, which I had to install separately, nearly everything I tested worked quite well. Only the import from camera did not work at all. My OS X version is 10.10.2.
>
> Wilfried Käding
>
> _______________________________________________
> Digikam-users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users

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