About My Software

The software I use is not what you might expect. I worked in the software industry from 1969 through 2011, programming and supporting many different operating systems on everything from super computers to servers and personal computers. My preferences are based on my experience and a real interest in open source software. It doesn't hurt that high quality software is available at no cost.

Photo Management

With thousands of digital photographs and scanned film photos going back to the 1970's I have a significant need for photo management software. The photo management tool I use is Digikam. It is a powerful photo management tool keeping track of photographs by date, camera, lens, location, and user generated keywords. I have keywords for subjects, techniques, family members, friends, seasons, and events.

I can usually find a specific image in seconds, even if it was taken decades ago. Digikam can also find different versions of the same photograph.

Digital Postprocessing

Digital postprocessing is done using Digikam, which has decent editing capabilities, and the GIMP for more complex editing Postprocessing is usually simple, similar to what I did in the darkroom, but every once in a while I resort to the full power of the digitial processing. I leave it to my audience to guess where that may have hapened.

Web Development

This web site is maintained using two very different methods. Photo gallery pages are generated directly from my photo management software, Digikam, using a set of templates and styles that I have customized. The Photo-of-the-Week archive is generated using another product, Jalbum. These methods allows me to update the photo galleries quickly.

Text pages like this one and the homepage are created more directly. I have used graphical tools in the past and have found that they are difficult to control. They do not always adapt to styles used in the galleries. I now edit the HTML code (HTML is the language of the Web) directly using Bluefish. It is a very powerful tool that verifies the technical aspects of HTML as well as my difficulties with spelling and typing.

The Operating System

Linux is a free computer operating system. There are several meanings in English for the word free. Free can mean without cost as in free beer, unowned as in free man, or unconstrained as in free speech. Linux is often free as in free beer, but is also free as in speech. Since it is not proprietary there are many vendors that provide differing levels of configuration and support.

Most people stay with a proprietary operating system because they are unaware that quality alternatives exist. In fact, Linux is as stable and easy to use as any other OS. Out of the box, so to speak, it provides e-mail, web, office, photo, and video applications. Of course, there is no box, the system is downloaded free over the Internet.

Personally, I use Debian 9, also called stretch on the Internet.

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