I have a particular obsession to have my photos well organized. As I have been fighting with this for a few years, I have tried a good handful of solutions, and for example I enjoyed Picasa –Google killed him, like Reader– And I also tried solutions like Synology photos Following the steps From my partner Alejandro Nieto. The goal has always been the same: Google photos of Googlea service that is wonderful but that like other services in the cloud, it worries me because I don’t know what my photos can be used. They assure They are not used for advertising purposes, but can be used to improve their automatic learning algorithms in image recognition. A custom nas The cloud is fantastic in many things and for many users, but as I say, I preferred to mount it at my home. Recently I counted this whole search process and tests in more detail in my blogand now I wanted to take advantage of it also in Xataka. About a year ago looking for new alternatives, and to achieve a decision I rode a nas With 30 hard drive, 4 TB of SSD and a modest plate and processor because it sought more efficiency than power. My NAS, in a Jonsbo N2 box with hard drives bays. There was also detailed research process to choose the operating system with which to control everything. There are many and varied options for NAS, although I would say that among the most prominent are unraid, thunder (formerly Freenes), proxmox, OpenMediavault or Casaos. After documenting, reading and watching videos I ended up deciding on Unraida very veteran and respected project. The “Starter” license costs 49 dollars and is valid for machines with up to six disk units, and I thought it was very good option. Putting everything in motion took some time: this is not like installing Windows on a PC, and I also wanted to have a very specific configuration to use the ZFS file system for the three hard disk units configured in Raidz (Raidz1 ), Something that when I settled I had just started to be available in Unraid. Solved that, I migrated all the data of my old NAS, an old Synology DS-212J who gave me many joys but that began to fall short in many things. That also took time, because I wanted to take the opportunity to reorganize the small chaos in which some folders that had used almost as “digital storages” had become. Testing alternatives to Google photos Once that was resolved, I could start trying different alternatives to manage my photos. Here Unraid is especially wonderful, because it allows (like other systems for NAS, certainly) to assemble services separately and easily isolated, especially thanks to Docker. UNRAID’s “App Store” with the different types of autosted services that you can install on your server at click. That makes you become 5, 10 or 100 servers. Those you want and those that your hardware allows, of course. And the same with virtual machines, that I do not use just but that are an equally interesting option to get your server more. I have ended up installing about 15 servers in my nas, although the vast majority are usually deactivated. Be that as it may, Unraid has its own “App Store”and in it there are dozens and dozens of possible services that you can ride on your server to run them from there and have your own cloud essence with your local services. There are alternatives for almost everything that exists on the Internet: you can mount your email, music, your web server, download, databases, or, of course … photos. And this is where it was time to try alternatives that seemed interesting and on which I had already investigated. Others met them along the way, but thanks to Unraid and Docker’s magic starting these alternatives is a matter of minutes. Then, of course, there is an import process of the photos – if you have many, that can take to days – but I reduced the import to a small subset of photos for the tests. First of all, I must say that what is clear is that in this field there is everything, and for all. The options are very varied both in their reach and in their way of “attacking” the problem, but I had certain priorities. In essence I wanted a good alternative to Google photos that inherited its virtues (interface, chronological organization, favorite management, perhaps facial and object recognition). Photosyructure is an original, different and very powerful alternative. That made some projects quickly discard that they did not fit me but that can be great for many users. Among them were Piwigo, Photonix, Chevereto, Damselfly, Lycheeeither PhotoViewbut there are certainly more. The thing however interesting with Some really serious and very striking alternatives. I had already tried Photosyructure And I loved his interface with that first page of random photo team, but they did not fit their favorite management (subscription to enable that option) or its interface, which is not focused on the chronological order. LIBHOTOS I looked great, but it was not easily installed (I was not in the “App Store” of Unraid) and gave me many problems, probably because I did something wrong when riding it. I also tried NextCloud Photos, curious option if you are already users of NextCloud Photos and its improved version, Memoriesbut the interface and some options were not entirely fine. The one who really put things difficult was Photoprismone of the most popular options among those looking for alternatives to Google photos. His options are extraordinary, and the only thing that really backed down is that it seems to me an option that focuses more on organizing your photos (the power here is amazing) than to enjoy them. The interface did not fall in love either, but it always remained as a great candidate if other options did not convince me anymore. I finally discovered a candidate … Read more