In this article I will introduce you to this photo collection tool that will more than likely become your de facto standard photo manager for the Linux operating system.

Installation

If you are using the GNOME desktop, most likely F-Spot is installed. If not, you will be glad to know it is found in your distributions standard repositories. So to install F-Spot all you need to do is open up your software installation tool (such as Synaptic, gnome-packagekit, etc), search for fspot, mark for installation, and apply the changes. Once installed you will find F-Spot in Applications > Graphics.

UI Layout

Figure 1

As you can see, in Figure 1, the layout of F-Spot is very user-friendly. There are a few items that might seem a bit foreign to new users. Let’s take a look at the pieces you might not be familiar with.

Toolbar

The first thing you will notice is the toolbar. There are a few icons here that need to be explained. To the right of the Browse button there are three icons of interest:

Edit Image: With an image selected, by clicking this button you open the F-Spot Image Editor (see Figure 2). From this window you can manipulate your photos. You will also notice a bit of version control in the left pane. After you do any manipulation the Version dropdown will list either Original or Modified.

Figure 2

Full Screen: If you click this icon the selected image will be shown in full screen mode.

Slideshow: By clicking this button all of your photo collection will be shown in a slide show (which is managed in Tools > Configure Screensaver.)

Timeline

Below the iconbar is the time line. If you have photos from different years you can select each year by clicking the square and dragging it to the desired year.

Importing photos

Figure 3

Enough with the UI. Let’s get to the good stuff. Importing photos with F-Spot is simple. Follow these steps:

1. Click the Import button.
2. Select the location of the photos you want to import.
3. Allow F-Spot to load all of the photos in the collection.
4. Select the options you want (see Figure 3).
5. Click the Import button.

Your collection has just grown. But when your collection gets too large, how do you manage it? F-Spot has a simple solution: Tags.

Tagging files

You will want to first create tags for your files. If you right click an empty spot in the left pane (under tags) you can select Create New Tag. You will need to give the following information:

• Parent Tag: What tag will this new tag be a member of?
• Name of New Tag: What is the name of your tag?
• Create Icon for this tag…: If checked, this will create an icon from the first photo you tag with this category.

To tag a photo you simply click on a tag and drag it to the photo. You can add more than one tag to a photo. Once tagged you can then sort your photos by tag by double clicking on the tag listing in the left pane.

Final thoughts

F-Spot makes easy work of managing your photos. You will also find it simple to import your photos from your digital camera as F-Spot will want to automatically open when you plug your supported camera into your USB port.

In this article I will outline a few of the possibilities that can be used to replace the beloved applications often used in Mac. In some cases their may be equivalents that are nearly identical. In some cases, however, there may be equivalents that miss some features, or even offer better features. Either way, after this article, you should feel much more comfortable about migrating from OS X to Linux.

In the previous article I already mentioned using Songbird as a replacement for iTunes. Personally I prefer Songbird to iTunes. The only downfall is that Songbird can not yet communicate to either the iPhone or the iTouch. Yet. There is another tool that is currently in development that will most likely change that. But for now – you can use Songbird as a replacement for iTunes – just don’t expect Songbird to communicate with your iPhone/iTouch.

Garage Band

For those looking to compose music on your Linux machine, a good replacement for Garage Band is Jokosher. Jokosher is a simple, powerful multi-track recording studio. With this outstanding tool you can import music, record instruments, mix down, set tempos, and more. You will not, however, find a large collection of pre-recorded instruments and sounds to add and manipulate. But, if you have a Freesound account, you can import anything from their. Unlike Garage Band, Jokosher is really more a user-friendly multi-track recorder. So don’t expect to just open up the application and start piecing together music without picking up an instrument.

For more information on other audio creating software take a look at Linux-Sound.org. In my humble opinion, if you are looking for mult-media creation, your best bet is to download Ubuntu Studio which will include so man pre-installed applications for media creation/editing.

iWork

This one should be obvious. If you’re looking for an office suite to take care of all your office needs, look no further than OpenOffice. Although OpenOffice may have a different look and feel, you will find it just as easy to use AND it includes more features and applications than iWork.

iCal

If you like Apple’s stand alone calendar (that also integrates with other applications) you can install the stand alone Sunbird calendar. Sunbird was created by Mozilla so it has a very Firefox/Thunderbird feel to it. Sunbird is very close to a feature-for-feature equivalent to iCal.

iPhoto

My wife uses a Mac and she HATES iPhoto. But it is the standard for Mac photo management. For Linux there is the F-spot photo management tool. F-spot not only manages your photo collections, but will work with your digital camera as an import tool. F-spot is actually easier to use than iPhoto and will not have you fighting to try to get a piece of software to do something you KNOW it should do, but won’t.

Final thoughts

It’s not an exhaustive list, but it will help you get by with the main applications one would use on a modern Mac computer.  If you have a Mac-based application you are looking for a Linux equivalent, let me know what that is and I will attempt to locate an equivalent for you.