[digiKam-users] Best distro for digiKam? (user)

[Toby Newman]

About to rebuild my linux box and digiKam has long been one of my
favourite bits of software, so I'm factoring it in my choice of distro.

Is there a best choice of Linux distro for digiKam?

Thanks
Toby

Le 25/07/2018 à 16:09, Toby Newman a écrit :
>
> About to rebuild my linux box and digiKam has long been one of my
> favourite bits of software, so I'm factoring it in my choice of distro.
>
> Is there a best choice of Linux distro for digiKam?
>
> Thanks
> Toby
>
with appimage, any distro should works, however, better use one with
native kde config. I use openSUSE, but other may do the job

jdd

--
http://dodin.org

[Remco Viëtor]

On vendredi 27 juillet 2018 09:04:35 CEST [hidden email] wrote:

> Le 25/07/2018 à 16:09, Toby Newman a écrit :
> > About to rebuild my linux box and digiKam has long been one of my
> > favourite bits of software, so I'm factoring it in my choice of distro.
> >
> > Is there a best choice of Linux distro for digiKam?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Toby
>
> with appimage, any distro should works, however, better use one with
> native kde config. I use openSUSE, but other may do the job

That's one for the devs to confirm, but afaik, Digikam is on its way to
complete removal of KDE dependencies, to become  a pure Qt application.
As such, KDE support by the distro should be less important.

Remco

[leoutation]

On 07/25/2018 04:09 PM, Toby Newman wrote:
>
> About to rebuild my linux box and digiKam has long been one of my
> favourite bits of software, so I'm factoring it in my choice of distro.
>
> Is there a best choice of Linux distro for digiKam?
>
With Arch Linux you always get last stable DK version, no need to wait...

[Gilles Caulier-4]

Hi,

The KDE dependencies are not yet fully removed. The last pending 20% are always the most difficult to complete.

The dependencies list, updated, is given in the API doc for developers :

https://www.digikam.org/api/index.html#externaldeps

A lots of KDE components are optional to be less sensible to KDE API changes in the future. As you can see few ones still mandatory. But the situation is less critical that for version 3.x or 4.x

Anyway, personalty, i use Mageia 6 Linux, which integrate very well KDE. The digiKam tarball manager is a guy from Magiea team. So the application is well integrated.

Gilles Caulier

2018-07-27 9:35 GMT+02:00 Remco Viëtor <[hidden email]>:

On vendredi 27 juillet 2018 09:04:35 CEST [hidden email] wrote:
> Le 25/07/2018 à 16:09, Toby Newman a écrit :
> > About to rebuild my linux box and digiKam has long been one of my
> > favourite bits of software, so I'm factoring it in my choice of distro.
> >
> > Is there a best choice of Linux distro for digiKam?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Toby
>
> with appimage, any distro should works, however, better use one with
> native kde config. I use openSUSE, but other may do the job

That's one for the devs to confirm, but afaik, Digikam is on its way to
complete removal of KDE dependencies, to become  a pure Qt application.
As such, KDE support by the distro should be less important.

Remco

[leoutation]

On 07/27/2018 11:32 AM, Gilles Caulier wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The KDE dependencies are not yet fully removed. The last pending 20% are
> always the most difficult to complete.
Hi
KF5 can't  display gimp 2.10 thumbnails. Any hope to replace KF5?
  Greetings

>
> The dependencies list, updated, is given in the API doc for developers :
>
> https://www.digikam.org/api/index.html#externaldeps
>
> A lots of KDE components are optional to be less sensible to KDE API
> changes in the future. As you can see few ones still mandatory. But the
> situation is less critical that for version 3.x or 4.x
>
> Anyway, personalty, i use Mageia 6 Linux, which integrate very well KDE.
> The digiKam tarball manager is a guy from Magiea team. So the
> application is well integrated.
>
> Gilles Caulier

[Peter McD]

Am 27.07.2018 um 09:40 schrieb [hidden email]:
> On 07/25/2018 04:09 PM, Toby Newman wrote:
>>
>> About to rebuild my linux box and digiKam has long been one of my
>> favourite bits of software, so I'm factoring it in my choice of distro.
>>
>> Is there a best choice of Linux distro for digiKam?
>>
> With Arch Linux you always get last stable DK version, no need to wait...

So with SUSE Tumbleweed, or with SUSE Leap 15 plus certain community
repositories.
Fedora is not bad
I think you also may find a digikam-ppa für (K)ubuntu.

or what about "snaps"
https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/basic-snap-usage#0

"flatpack" may be something for you, too;-)

This is "Linux", enjoy;-)

cu
Peter

[christian graesser]

I can recommend Manjaro linux based on Arch but is easier to install and has a stable and light native KDE environment. i use Digikam on both now on two laptops which are 5 and 3 years old. 4 and 8 Gb Ram.

best regards

Christian

On Fri, 27 Jul 2018, 09:02 Toby Newman, <[hidden email]> wrote:

About to rebuild my linux box and digiKam has long been one of my
favourite bits of software, so I'm factoring it in my choice of distro.

Is there a best choice of Linux distro for digiKam?

Thanks
Toby

[Peter Albrecht]

Hi!

If digikam is your main priority, Debian Linux (Version: Stretch) is no good
choice (at least for my use cases):

 * default digikam version is 5.3.0 (which has issues with tagging by keyboard;
   digikam version 5.9.0 work way better for this job)
 * digikam AppImage 5.9.0 has some problems with system integration:
   * image action "open with" does not load mime type associations of Debian
     host system
   * same problem for "open album in file explorer"

Of course, you could try to backport and build your own Debian package, but this
will mean lot of learning and working.

Regards,
        Peter


On 25.07.2018 16:09, Toby Newman wrote:
>
> About to rebuild my linux box and digiKam has long been one of my favourite bits
> of software, so I'm factoring it in my choice of distro.
>
> Is there a best choice of Linux distro for digiKam?
>
> Thanks
> Toby
>

[Mica Semrick]

KDE builds a nightly flatpak of digiKam that you could easily adapt into the latest stable.

-m

On July 28, 2018 11:45:59 PM PDT, Peter Albrecht <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi!

If digikam is your main priority, Debian Linux (Version: Stretch) is no good
choice (at least for my use cases):

 * default digikam version is 5.3.0 (which has issues with tagging by keyboard;
   digikam version 5.9.0 work way better for this job)
 * digikam AppImage 5.9.0 has some problems with system integration:
   * image action "open with" does not load mime type associations of Debian
     host system
   * same problem for "open album in file explorer"

Of course, you could try to backport and build your own Debian package, but this
will mean lot of learning and working.

Regards,
	Peter


On 25.07.2018 16:09, Toby Newman wrote:
 
 About to rebuild my linux box and digiKam has long been one of my favourite bits
 of software, so I'm factoring it in my choice of distro.
 
 Is there a best choice of Linux distro for digiKam?
 
 Thanks
 Toby
 

[AndriusWild]

I think openSUSE with KDE is one of the best ones for digiKam. They keep digiKam up to date and everything just works.

I tried Manjaro but experienced some weird bugs with exiv2 functionality.

Debian/Ubuntu based are all great choice but they have very very very old digikam in their repos although I have heard KDE Neon is more up to date but I have never used this distro myself.

On Wed, Jul 25, 2018 at 8:09 AM, Toby Newman <[hidden email]> wrote:

About to rebuild my linux box and digiKam has long been one of my favourite bits of software, so I'm factoring it in my choice of distro.

Is there a best choice of Linux distro for digiKam?

Thanks
Toby

[Peter McD]

Am 31.07.2018 um 16:00 schrieb Andrey Goreev:
> I think openSUSE with KDE is one of the best ones for digiKam. They keep
> digiKam up to date and everything just works. ...

I run Tumbleweed. If you can stand the weekly update-volume, this is the
distribution. (I have not tried Arch, yet)

But the most, really most important aspect is whether the distribution
supports ALL your hardware the way you need it.

Check that, I'm sure you will find a way to get the newest digikam for
that distro, too.

cu
Peter

[Daniel Bauer-2]

On 31.07.2018 16:39, Peter McD wrote:

> Am 31.07.2018 um 16:00 schrieb Andrey Goreev:
>> I think openSUSE with KDE is one of the best ones for digiKam. They keep
>> digiKam up to date and everything just works. ...
>
> I run Tumbleweed. If you can stand the weekly update-volume, this is the
> distribution. (I have not tried Arch, yet)
>
> But the most, really most important aspect is whether the distribution
> supports ALL your hardware the way you need it.
>
> Check that, I'm sure you will find a way to get the newest digikam for
> that distro, too.
>
> cu
> Peter
>

I run OpenSuse, right now 42.3, since Suse 6x, and in general am happy
with it. I guess it's a lot of just being accustomed. I like the easy
management tools ("Yast") to install and de-install programs.

I have never tried other distros but I think it's probably the same as
with Canon and Nikon users: mine is better than yours, where both are
the same good and all is a matter of taste.

So, if you're new to Linux, I'd try to install several of the common
distros (Ubuntu, Suse...) and play a little around with them to see
which one applies best to your personal taste.

I wouldn't go for a "cutting edge" distro like tumbleweed if you are not
familiar with all the tools to eventually repair things from an update.

Also check if that distro supports your hardware from scratch. I have
huge problems (unsolvable) with optimus (intel/nvidia graphics) which on
my asus laptop simply does not run correct (nvidia not at all, intel
with lots of annoyances). Don't know if other distros behave better with
that (I guess it's a general problem), but try them on your hardware.

Once you decided for a distro you most probably will stay with it for
many years, so invest some time to get a feeling for the differences.
You could install them in virtual systems (virtualbox), so that you can
even switch between them and compare directly.

Another thing to consider is what distro your friends are running - in
case you need help...
--
Daniel Bauer photographer Basel Málaga
https://www.patreon.com/danielbauer
http://www.daniel-bauer.com

[leoutation]

On 07/31/2018 05:41 PM, Daniel Bauer wrote:
> I wouldn't go for a "cutting edge" distro like tumbleweed if you are not
> familiar with all the tools to eventually repair things from an update.
>
> Also check if that distro supports your hardware from scratch. I have
> huge problems (unsolvable) with optimus (intel/nvidia graphics) which on
> my asus laptop simply does not run correct (nvidia not at all, intel
> with lots of annoyances). Don't know if other distros behave better with
> that (I guess it's a general problem), but try them on your hardware.
Hi
I run Arch, rolling distribution, hourly/daily update.
In a distro, most problems come from kernel. I only run lts Arch
kernels.  For me, Arch is more stable than Debian-testing, Fedora or
Ubuntu. Nothing to "repair". I never had any problem with
nvidia/bumblebee/optimus (use dkms).
Digikam works fine, even with git version.
Important: with Arch, you have to know what you're doing. I don't think
it's a distro for beginners.

https://www.archlinux.org/packages/
https://aur.archlinux.org/

[Errol Sapir]

Toby, thanks for raising this interesting question. Nobody (yet) mentioned Kubuntu. I am thinking of going to  Kubuntu. Any thoughts on Kubuntu as the "best" distro for Digikam?
Errol

On 07/25/2018 05:09 PM, Toby Newman wrote:

About to rebuild my linux box and digiKam has long been one of my favourite bits of software, so I'm factoring it in my choice of distro.

Is there a best choice of Linux distro for digiKam?

Thanks
Toby

[AndriusWild]

It is a great distro however digikam in their repos isn't up to date. Appimage is a great alternative but it can't be fully integrated to the system as a native package can be.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Errol Sapir <[hidden email]>

Date: 2018-07-31 9:01 PM (GMT-07:00)

To: [hidden email]

Subject: Re: [digiKam-users] Best distro for digiKam? (user)

Toby, thanks for raising this interesting question. Nobody (yet) mentioned Kubuntu. I am thinking of going to  Kubuntu. Any thoughts on Kubuntu as the "best" distro for Digikam?
Errol

On 07/25/2018 05:09 PM, Toby Newman wrote:

About to rebuild my linux box and digiKam has long been one of my favourite bits of software, so I'm factoring it in my choice of distro.

Is there a best choice of Linux distro for digiKam?

Thanks
Toby

[piotergmoter]

I'm kubuntu 16.04 user with DK 5.5 from PPA and DK 6.x Appimage. Why two? Native DK package cannot be higher than 5.5 (qt library limits), and it has some  bugs, so the need for appimage which has also its problems (on my system it does not see the adroid devices).

P.

W dniu 01.08.2018 o 05:01, Errol Sapir pisze:

Toby, thanks for raising this interesting question. Nobody (yet) mentioned Kubuntu. I am thinking of going to  Kubuntu. Any thoughts on Kubuntu as the "best" distro for Digikam?
Errol

On 07/25/2018 05:09 PM, Toby Newman wrote:

About to rebuild my linux box and digiKam has long been one of my favourite bits of software, so I'm factoring it in my choice of distro.

Is there a best choice of Linux distro for digiKam?

Thanks
Toby

[Sveinn í Felli-2]

Chiming in a bit late:

Every couple of years I do some distro-hopping to see what fits my
needs; lately my main environment has been LinuxMint with Cinnamon
desktop - and some repository tweaking; some backport packages and of
course the Philip repositories to have the latest DigiKam and friends.

Even so, there have been occasional quirks, normally solvable, but
sometimes waiting a couple of days for a fix. This is I think valid for
most of the *buntu derivative distros.

Meanwhile, I've kept some other distros at hand, sometimes using them to
test the newest versions of DigiKam.

Mageia is rather easy to use, and seems to have good support for KDE.
Manjaro seems to be similar in many ways.

But for a solid, stable productive setup I'd go for OpenSUSE; behind the
scenes they have quite a mechanism for spinning customized repositories,
the software selection at <https://software.opensuse.org/> is immense,
support for hardware is among the best in the Linux-world, they offer an
easy "One Click" package installation (RPM-format) and the
YAST-interface is usable in text-mode from the command-line (has saved
my butt several times when video-card drivers have gone fubar...).

Nevertheless, OpenSUSE are distros I'd try to avoid to set up for other
non-technical users on the same box (guest access or concubine), they
have tendency of getting somewhat bloated (SUSE has a record of doing
things not quite the standard ways) and sometimes it's not
straightforward to configure/isolate issues when there's an overlap of
the configuration managers (clashes/overrides between YAST and the
GNOME/KDE-system managers).

So, I'd recommend OpenSUSE for a private workstation on a box with
plenty of horsepower and for an user willing to set things up as he sees
fit.

Just thoughts,

Sveinn í Felli


Þann þri 31.júl 2018 15:41, skrifaði Daniel Bauer:

>
>
> On 31.07.2018 16:39, Peter McD wrote:
>> Am 31.07.2018 um 16:00 schrieb Andrey Goreev:
>>> I think openSUSE with KDE is one of the best ones for digiKam. They keep
>>> digiKam up to date and everything just works. ...
>>
>> I run Tumbleweed. If you can stand the weekly update-volume, this is
>> the distribution. (I have not tried Arch, yet)
>>
>> But the most, really most important aspect is whether the distribution
>> supports ALL your hardware the way you need it.
>>
>> Check that, I'm sure you will find a way to get the newest digikam for
>> that distro, too.
>>
>> cu
>> Peter
>>
>
> I run OpenSuse, right now 42.3, since Suse 6x, and in general am happy
> with it. I guess it's a lot of just being accustomed. I like the easy
> management tools ("Yast") to install and de-install programs.
>
> I have never tried other distros but I think it's probably the same as
> with Canon and Nikon users: mine is better than yours, where both are
> the same good and all is a matter of taste.
>
> So, if you're new to Linux, I'd try to install several of the common
> distros (Ubuntu, Suse...) and play a little around with them to see
> which one applies best to your personal taste.
>
> I wouldn't go for a "cutting edge" distro like tumbleweed if you are not
> familiar with all the tools to eventually repair things from an update.
>
> Also check if that distro supports your hardware from scratch. I have
> huge problems (unsolvable) with optimus (intel/nvidia graphics) which on
> my asus laptop simply does not run correct (nvidia not at all, intel
> with lots of annoyances). Don't know if other distros behave better with
> that (I guess it's a general problem), but try them on your hardware.
>
> Once you decided for a distro you most probably will stay with it for
> many years, so invest some time to get a feeling for the differences.
> You could install them in virtual systems (virtualbox), so that you can
> even switch between them and compare directly.
>
> Another thing to consider is what distro your friends are running - in
> case you need help...