A very welcome article, but not much information. Recently, I again searched the web for my 'ideal photo-management-tool', and tried a dozen 'trial-versions', only to find they're all more-or-less the same and nothing comes even close to being satisfactory. I think one of the problems is that most programs get carried away in their ambition to change (crop, enhance, correct) the pics, while while paying far too little attention to the basic task of ordering pictures.
I'm not saying that some edititing options are not welcome (although many will, like me, prefer a specialised program like Photoshop for that task), but I'm desperate to find something which can fulfill even the most basic tasks I need to create some order into the chaos of my pictures and video's.
What I found so far (and I've recently tried a dozen or so trial versions of newcomers) I would rate as 'primitive' at best.
I long for a 'list of requirements', followed by ratings or comments for specific programs on each of these requirements. The worst aspect of my 'search' was that the information given about the points I most care about, was none or scant, so I had to try everything - and was disappointed every time.
Here are just a few examples of what I sorely missed:
- Based on public standards, so I can hope that my grandchildren can still profit from the information I add to my pictures.
(So: the basic ordering should respect the folders of the OS's file system; titles and descriptions should be easy to add and should, even when an overlying DB is used for speed, be written into the picture-file itself whenever possibl,e e.g. .jpg, in order to make them comply with standards. This is also a requirement to make the ordering structure visible for a UPnP media server.)
- Making 'presentations' which show a choice of pics. These should be saved in such a way that everything can be moved from one HD to another storage space.
- Sorting the pics initially according to the exif-date, while offering the option to sort them in a presentation freely, and visually, like I did when they were printed. I'd expect a screen, taking full advantage of the size of my monitor, with thumbnails (of adjustable size) I could drag & drop with with my mouse to put them in the desired order for some presentation, which then would be saved in an ascii file.

These are just 3 of my 'very basic' requirements, but amazingly I don't know any program which can fulfill all three.
- I have a fourth very basic one, though: I should be able to mix picture and video in any order I like.
(With every camera or phone being able to make movies, and every movie-camera being able to make good stills, I think this Great Divide between photographs and movies is typical for the somewhat autistic world-view of techies.)
And this is just for starters. Can anyone point me to a discussion/website which takes these things serious?
Hans