Shotwell and rhythmbox could be easily replaced by GNOME photos and GNOME music which are apps that are specially designed for the gnome desktop and Ubuntu uses the gnome desktop.
I think it would make sense to drop shotwell and rhythmbox in favour of those:
Rhythmbox vs Music
Rhyhtmbox has more features like using your Mp3 dongle, connecting to online radio stations, last-fm and sharing your music on the network.
Yet, despite several stability issues it also has, most of those features become more and more unused because the user behaviour moves (if this is good or not is not the point of discussion) away from local music or mp3-dongles to online streaming platforms aka spotify/youtube/vice versa. Gnome music on the other side has only one feature: playing local music and present it well (Do one thing and do it well). I think, with the visual advantages like a big album view grid, this would be a perfect addition to a modern desktop installation, whereas rhythmbox feels a bit âovertunedâ for the usecases today. Also without the CSD extension rhythmbox looks a bit dated (no CSD). If the user is in need of online radios, there is a modern gnome extension or modern gnome applications that can be installed individually.
Shotwell Vs Photos
Photos is designed for the gnome 3 desktop, doesnât need a menu (which is a big plus since gnome 3 does not have a global menu and thus much screenspace is wasted), uses client side decorations (again we need this because the title bar is not merged with the top panel anymore).
Photos is also part of the official gnome core apps and frequently updated with every gnome release.
There is also an additional thing Iâd like to point out: shipping apps that were designed for an older desktop and are not-so-regular-maintained (I donât say they are not maintained ) is not the best âPRâ (actually PR is none of my business but I try!) for ubuntu. If there are well working gnome applications out which are designed for the gnome desktop and which are officially in the main gnome stack why shouldnât ubuntu use them?
Not sure why you think GNOME photos is anywhere near feature parity with Shotwell. GNOME photos indexes all pictures, even screenshots, etc. - which is just odd (why canât I restrict it to ~/Pictures ?) . Has no tagging support, does not categorize by date / event, albums are only 1 level deep (so canât have year / album hierarchy).
Okay, I stand corrected!
My personal impression is that the UI improvements of modern gnome applications still outweighs the ability to tag photos. I believe the most average user I can think of wants a place where his pictures are gathered and can share those easily with a little editing capabilities.
Additionally shotwells UI may have fitted into unity as unity provided the global menu but since gnome 3 doesnât, apps which use this old UI design of having a menu at the top (and a treeview at the side) does not look that well designed for the desktop they run on anymore because the menu does not blend into the title bar and the whole usable screenspace shrinks.
So why not use gnome photos? Itâs there, itâs modern itâs actively improved with every gnome release like all official gnome apps and most importantly it is designed for the gnome desktop in mind and it has a Google photos connection built in
Ofc there are arguments for keeping shotwells though.
Agreed and Gnome Music doesnât show music unless itâs folder has been indexed. Iâd keep both applications due to their maturity. We donât need new apps just because theyâre new and shiny, they must be better than what theyâre replacing!
Actually, GNOME music and GNOME photos are not that ânewâ as you might think.
And maybe I repeat myself, but they are designed for the gnome3 desktop and for the gnome shell in mind.
I try to illustrate how much screenspace none-gnome3 applications waste when running in gnome shell:
Correct, I prefer the steak as opposed to the sizzle, or as others say âsubstance over styleâ. You may have overlooked, that Iâm a strong advocate of Gnome and have used it since itâs beginning. So Iâm pretty well versed as to whatâs coming going forward. However I donât have blinders on, and recognise that some Gnome Apps arenât up to feature parity and/or are just too simplistic.
Itâs not simply âstyleâ. Itâs the whole interface and most importantly the fact that itâs not designed for the shell. Design is far more than âstyleâ or âlook and feelâ.
I do like the look of GNOME photos, and its simplicity. But, there should be at least some grouping to the photos (year / month?). Personally, for me, its just too simple. Even the Android gallery categorizes photos by the date they were taken.
From a very quick play with Photos:
How do I remove a photo from an album?
How to sort albums? They seem to appear with the latest created first.
As to the size taken by the menubar + titlebar, etc - this is only ~75% of the menubar height difference to GNOME Photos. If Communitheme used slimmer non-CSD titlebars, then the difference would be even less. But I agree, headerbar would be much nicer here.
Definitely, if Gnome-Photos could do what the stock Android âPhotosâ does Iâd accept it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately Gnome-Photos is slow as molasses when pulling down from any online gallery such as Googleâs too.
Ok great, than why do you write substance over style? When itâs clearly not only the style that changes. A style change is for example switching between adwaita and our new theme. Also, letâs stay a bit more out of that personal flavour you add to your comments. It seems like you use Ubuntu which much passion just like I do but that wonât help. So maybe we can see what others think, both of us where quiet precice in what is important for us when using gnome 3.
Anyway Gnome applications should be the default, BUT they must be better, or at least have feature parity to what theyâre replacing. Gnome-Photos ainât there yet.
I think thatâs the use cases and average user problem I was writing about.
It would be interesting to see what younger people think when they probably use mobile applications before they start Ubuntu for the first time. I doubt that having hundreds of photos autotagged from the usb camera is the average use case. I think that most people have a bunch of photos, on which they want to add a filter fast and easy to and share them.
If shotwell would at least remove that menu and overhaul itâs design to gnome hig. But I donât think this will happen any time soon.
I think average users probably just browse their photos in Nautilus and EOG rather than through a desktop app. The days of people keeping 1000s of photos locally is long gone thanks to Google Photos, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
But should they want to, then Shotwell will meet their needs just as well as Photos (i.e. "show me photos i took) and also meet the needs of amateur photographers, graphics designers, etc too.
Well said! Itâs not like I am young or want to make me younger than I am. I actually never made a selfie on which I want to add a filter fast. But thatâs where photos really shines.
Also I wonât be too shocked if shotwells maintainers/devs drop the development completly seeing how much contributions shotwell received in the past years.
Wait a minute: @d0od arenât you the dude which is the omgubuntu âfatherâ? Could you do me a favour and make a poll on this topic on your site? maybe because you love communitheme so much?
If the outcome of such a poll would be rather pro shotwell and rhythmbox I will go into my lonely gnome hig pit (bah that sounds disgusting) and listen to my offline music regretfully.
The alternate-toolbar plugin is shipped by default. Also I think you intended to say headerbar rather than csd.
ExactlyâŚand rhythmbox has many plugins to these popular online services. More importantly it has a powerful api which enables you to do anything.
The problem with the gnome-music is the dependency on tracker. Ubuntu doesnât ship tracker by default as it deteriorates sata hard-disk and after few months (tested and proven) and has high battery consumption. Without tracker I donât think you can set custom location for local music. A big big disadvantage.
Photos has same tracker problem.
You can simply use unite and other extensions to do that. To save space.
I use âno titlebarâ (deactivated in that screenshot).
Itâs not about me, I just purge any application I donât need and install those I like. Itâs about shipping outdated apps when using the gnome3 desktop when gnome has actively developed applications in its official stack. Are those tracker problems HDD specific? Or does this also happen to SSDs?
) is not the best âPRâ (actually PR is none of my business but I try!) for ubuntu. If there are well working gnome applications out which are designed for the gnome desktop and which are officially in the main gnome stack why shouldnât ubuntu use them? 
