[ubuntu-za] Fwd: Notes tab on file properties

[Johan Mynhardt]

Whoops, forgot to keep it in the community.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Johan Mynhardt <johanmynhardt at gmail.com>
Date: 2 June 2012 15:42
Subject: Re: [ubuntu-za] Notes tab on file properties
To: robin at bownes.co.za


> Johan,
>
> Firstly, removing the ability to see information, attached to a file, that
> is apparently still there, can in no way be equated to a motor-manufacturer
> "going green" - whether anyone has just bought fuel or not.

I'm know for having a dry sense of humor. Sorry if that caught you off-guard.

>
> Secondly, as a photographer (professional), I have the following comments:
>
> Using the embedded notes/comments in the file properties, provided a simple,
> easy to use, cross-platform method of recording and providing necessary
> information to clients, printers & galleries, whether they were using Linux,
> Windows or Mac.

I don't get this point. If it was truly embedded, how can it be lost otherwise?

According to this post from Gustav,
* http://askubuntu.com/questions/90853/file-notes-tab-gone-in-nautilus-3-2-1
and then
* http://askubuntu.com/questions/14669/are-file-notes-exclusive-to-nautilus-is-there-a-terminal-cli
in the answer: http://askubuntu.com/a/14675/58832 :

"I am not sure about your first and third question but it appears that
it is exclusive
 (by that I mean that nautilus' metadata is not portable) to Nautilus
and I couldn't find
any tools for extracting Nautilus file annotations, but here are a few
examples of how
to access file annotations from the command line,..."

It is evident that this was a Nautilus-specific feature that has
nothing to do with
being cross-platform, which renders your response:
"Using the embedded notes/comments in the file properties, provided a simple,
easy to use, cross-platform method of recording and providing necessary
information to clients, printers & galleries, whether they were using Linux,
Windows or Mac." - invalid. Unless the EXIF data was modifiable from
the notes tab...

In which case you should still have your info at hand :)

Surely as a professional photographer you should know that the only
way for information to be available in a picture
in a cross-platform way, is if it uses EXIF, IPTC or other
(standards-compliant) embeddable information interchange data types
like:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchangeable_image_file_format
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPTC_Information_Interchange_Model

It has nothing to do with the file manager.

I just applied some information to a jpeg and RAW file, and it is
still available with the image...

>
> The professional photo management/workflow applications in the repositories
> all have their own weaknesses, as does any software. However, the main one
> is that I cannot rely on all of the printers, galleries, clients, etc., with
> whom I may deal, using the same, or even a compatible management system.

What are those requirements?
I just listen to everyone at the photo club talking about how much
money they spend on
all the 'professional' software out there, while I know that using my
OSS tool-set I can
comfortably do the same and get my pictures printed without problems.

> I'm afraid that your comment about file managers does not really make sense
> to me.

The point I want to make on file managers is that they are purely
there to provide an interface to the file system and the layout of the
files.

"A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a
user interface to work with file systems." -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filemanager

> However, it is highly irresponsible to provide a feature, that may
> well be used by millions of people, and then remove it without warning. This
> is true whether the actual comment data is no longer stored, or whether the
> ability to read that data is no longer available.

I doubt they are that dumb...

>
> I stopped using Microsoft, and began using Ubuntu for one major reason.
> Ubuntu made my life easier, and allowed me to get more work done, and spend
> considerably less time dealing with software issues. Given the circumstances
> under discussion, and possible future ramifications, it is entirely valid
> for me to question the reasonableness of continuing to use Ubuntu unless
> some fairly strong re-assurances are provided. This time it is a relatively
> small, but useful, and highly time-consuming (for me) item that has been
> removed. Next time it might be something that impacts you; possibly even
> more severely.

I've learned my lessons before :) That's why I have all these comments
that at first does not make sense.

>
> I found your comments to be extremely defensive (not really sure why), and
> providing absolutely no helpful information.

It wasn't my intention to be helpful, as I said it's comments :)
And I am being defensive as I believe that a lot of sand is kicked
around blaming a file manager for something it has nothing to do with.

>
> Robin

My apologies for not being of help, but I have to stand up for the
sake of defending a situation where I think it is totally unreasonable
to bash Ubuntu in it's entirety because of a Nautilus-specific-feature
that changed.


-- 
Johan Mynhardt

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