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Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

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Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#281

Post by Mister_Snuggles »

oarsinsync wrote: post #162
Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #62

For backing up photos, I've used two solutions: 1. PhotoSync[0] - it can your photos and videos to a local NAS. It has a ton of options for how to connect to a local NAS, plus it will connect to a variety of cloud services. It is very configurable. This used to be my primary way to transfer photos to my NAS, but I've since started using iCloud which does everything I need. 2. iCloud - Turn it on, sign up for the appr…

> 2. iCloud - Turn it on, sign up for the appropriate storage plan, it basically just works, and I can access my photos from all of my devices. Obviously only useful if you're in the Apple ecosystem. Note iCloud photos are not E2EE, and while data mining and tagging for your device occurs locally, Apple can and has demonstrated they will read your photos without your explicit permission. This happened to me when I ra…

Oh, I didn't know that. This is definitely an important consideration.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#282

Post by whoisburbansky »

sverhagen wrote: post #95
vishnumohandas wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current set of paid users are sufficient to break-even on the infrastructure costs. As for personnel costs, a few more hundred paying users and we'll be set. Feedback from existing users have been positive, and we should be able to reach that point by end of the year. It helps that we're living in one of the cheaper parts of the globe, and are not motivated by money. We're building this because an easy to use, pr…

> not motivated by money Ummm, could you elaborate on this? It sounds great but it's at the same time so foreign to me...

“Not motivated by money” doesn’t mean they’re doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, it just means they’re optimizing for other things, and just see cash flow as a way to keep the lights on and their employees paid.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#283

Post by ok_ok »

jk7tarYZAQNpTQa wrote: post #192
erikbye wrote: post #185

Why are you looking for something free? Haven't you all learned by now that you are the product if it is free. If you need a service pay for it monthly. If you need disks for storage pay for it once.

> Haven't you all learned by now that you are the product if it is free. So when I'm running the Linux kernel, or compiling with gcc, or editing with vim, I'm the product? Could you explain to me how exactly? Sorry but that sentence is completely stupid.

With open source software neither you nor anything else is the product. Got it?

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#284

Post by tompagenet2 »

mceachen wrote: post #264
tompagenet2 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, PhotoStructure looks amazing. I'm intrigued. How and when does bitrot detection work? I couldn't find it on your site. I spend a decent amount of time making PAR2 volumes so I can detect failures as I've not come up with a better idea.

The bitrot detection is via libjpeg, libraw, and ffmpeg (to handle both photo and video validation): they can be run in verbose modes that can report decoding errors which are due to file truncation or outright corruption.

Wow - this sounds amazing. How does one set it up; does it automatically occur?

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#285

Post by ghaff »

vishnumohandas wrote: post #277
ghaff wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>as this data is priceless Personally, I'd never trust the only copy of something important to a service provider--especially one that isn't a "big name." (Though even in the case of big names there can be issues with account access, etc.) ADDED: Curious why people find this a controversial statement. I understand if you have AWS set up with various redundancies but even a service like Backblaze I consider a belt and…

You're right about two being one and one being none. Our current setup includes primary backups to BackBlaze[1], and eventually consistent replications to Scaleway's cold storage[2]. We would like to offer an extra replica as an addon in the future. [1]: https://www.backblaze.com [2]: https://www.scaleway.com/en/c14-cold-storage

Makes sense. You can feel vulnerable in a big hurry if your primary fails or if it turns out that one of your backups wasn't being properly backed up to.

I know a lot of people these days are fine with their stuff mostly just being stored in "the cloud" someplace. But for things like photos, I really want a couple copies under my control to the degree possible.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#286

Post by jk7tarYZAQNpTQa »

squiggleblaz wrote: post #266
virgoerns wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Services have operating costs So does ordinary, non-service software (like mentioned, Linux, gcc or vim). Hosting of their websites, mailing lists, CI, time of developers... they all cost very real money. And yet, somehow these programs don't track you and sell your data. I don't mind paid services, but I don't think they should get a free pass for being unethical just because they run on someone else computer, und…

Software development has costs which can[1] be distributed across their users: Linux costs a lot less per user to run if there's 10_000_000 installs versus 10 installs. And the value of the product to, say a specific 1000 users might be such that they're willing to pay its entire costs and tolerate the consequences of the GPL. Services are different, in that each individual user will tend to place an additional load…

> Services are different, in that each individual user will tend to place an additional load on the systems

Sure. Then let me pay for those costs on my own. Give me the app and I'll configure my AWS keys.

The whole "you have to pay because it's a service" is an fallacious argument. The user should pay some costs, but the rest of them don't need to be "subscription based", not even paid.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#287

Post by mceachen »

tompagenet2 wrote: post #284
mceachen wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bitrot detection is via libjpeg, libraw, and ffmpeg (to handle both photo and video validation): they can be run in verbose modes that can report decoding errors which are due to file truncation or outright corruption.

Wow - this sounds amazing. How does one set it up; does it automatically occur?

Yeah, it's part of automatic organization:

https://photostructure.com/getting-started/automatic-library...

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#288

Post by dustyharddrive »

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #212
happynacho wrote: post #199

I tried Mylo but didn't really like it so I ended up with Apple Photos. At least they "allow" me to have a local copy of my photo library unlike Google. So in any extremely unlikely case they nuke my account, I have my locals.

How did you manage to get a local copy of Apple Photos? Their API seems not designed to be publicly used, and tools like pyicloud still have their issues with some types of media.

I’m pretty sure OP is referring to Photos for macOS Preferences > iCloud > “Download Originals to this Mac” - you can move your .photoslibrary file to an external or network drive if you need for space reasons.

Then all your files can be accessed with the .photoslibrary file context menu, “Show Package Contents”, “originals” folder.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#290

Post by aborsy »

galbar wrote: post #53
samename wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you manage your own server or do you host it somewhere like AWS/Digital Ocean?

I do, on Digital Ocean. I'm using DO's Spaces (S3) as file storage. I also suspect very strongly that it is the main source of the slowness of the nextcloud (but it is super cheap!). The main pain in the ass is having to update every year or so. It usually works flawlessly, until it doesn't and I have to run a few manual commands. Other than that, it just works. 100% recommend it. Mine is a personal instance, being u…

I suppose at 5$/month, your instance has 1GB RAM.

I should warn users that such instance may struggle to run even bare minimum nextcloud.

2-4GB is preferred.

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