Back to Linux? or not, not sure yet

  I'm really starting to get tired of Windows 10, and it's updates.  I thought I will give it a try, truth be told I bought a cheap hardware, with the option of being able to use it as a tablet since it has a touch screen, Acer 11.6". I've had it for less than 2 years.  The reason I got it was because I couldn't find a way to automatically sync to Amazon Drive, and Google Photo's. Well that didn't work out too well since the Amazon drive client pegged my underpowered CPU, and Amazon wasn't able to help. That was fine I found an alternative, but then Amazon decided to change their pricing plan, so now I lost trust in them. First they had the perfect plan at $12 which I started to use back in March 2015. Well Amazon decided to cancel that plan, and went with a unlimited storage either $79 or $59/year, which really didn't last that long as that plan was also canceled and now it's $59/year for 1 TB of storage.  While I know that it will take me another maybe 10 years to fill it up with pictures, what assurance do I have they won't change again? I'll just stick to SmugMug.  I've been using them for a while, but never thought of them as a backup service, they still offer a great unlimited photo's since 2009, so I trust they will stick to their plan, and honor what they offer.  Great organization possibilities, excellent sharing, and embedding options. Also another plus, they have integration with Amazon Drive, so I can transfer pictures from Amazon Drive to SmugMug.
  Anyhow, back to my rant about the laptop which was so sluggish and slow. I remember once waiting for more than an hour for a Windows update to finish. Not a re-install, but an update. Also surfing the net was becoming annoying, Chrome (I wouldn't dare start) Firefox was kinda OK, but still slow, click on a link and wait for the spinning hour.  My Internet connection is fine, as I tested with my desktop, tablet, and phone.
  I grabbed my old beaten Dell Insprion 1318 laptop, and installed Artengos Linux on it.  And started testing/playing with it, this old laptop was faster than my less than 2 year old one, though spec's wise, they are similar.(I'm actually typing this post on it)  So I grabbed the newer laptop, and tried another Linux distribution. Manjaro Linux live USB.  And it worked fast, browsing was lighting fast compared to browsing on Windows 10.  Is it the anti-virus software?  Well that's required, so un-installing that is not an option.  Background processes were keeping the CPU busy, that's fine, but sometimes to the stage that Firefox becomes un-responsive. And after a bit of digging, it was the windows updates.
  What I'm trying to decide on, is if I need windows10 at all.  I'm contemplating installing Manjaro Linux XFCE on the newer laptop, or Artengos Linux, both are Arch Linux derivatives, which I also used for some time, before I lent the laptop to a relative, for them I installed Ubuntu.
  I like Artengos Linux, works like a charm on this old laptop, even photo processing isn't a pain.  Photo editing software is abundant on Linux, some are great, others have a big learning curve (but they work)

Contrary to the Blogs Title, I've switched to a Windows10 Laptop

  After years of resisting Windows as my main Operating System on my laptop(s), I gave in, and got myself a Windows 10 laptop.  Lenovo Flex2, 14" being a hybrid, Touch screen, and Cinema mode, which I've tried and works great for watching movies.  I gave chromebook a chance but it doesn't fit my needs. My hobby (photography) didn't work out with the Chromebook.
  Automatic backup, auto uploads, and normal photo applications are a bit behind on Chrome OS. Mainly the automatic backup didn't work well on Chromebook or rather it did not fit in my workflow. And I couldn't find any auto-backup to google photos for Linux. I tried using the browser for my uploads, but my choice of Chromebook in this case, with 2GB of RAM was not the best. I used a tab for uploading images, and then went to another tab to edit my blog, when I checked back, the upload was stopped and had to reload, and restart the uploads. Not a problem usually, but even editing my blog, and switching between tabs it keeps reloading the tabs when switching. I know it's because of the lack of RAM, and buying another Chromebook in Hungary is expensive, and this Flex 2 was a really good deal.  So I went along, bought it, upgraded to Windows 10, and I've been enjoying it so far.  All my photography software work, I can download, rate, pick my pictures, and then only export/upload the best picks.
  So far Windows 10 seems to work great (I did not manage to get a blue screen of death yet).  I will be writing more about my experience with it.  I have to admit my Desktop will still and will always run Ubuntu, but for my hobby, and upgrading my Camera I will use this new laptop.  Until later...

In my quest for photography workflow with Chromebook

  I've been complaining in my blog about Chromebook not being fit for photography. And by all means I am not a professional, so this is from the perspective of an amature, for fun photographer.
  I started a new workflow. I upload my images to Google Drive, then I add a prefix to the file name, usually a -up, for upload. I then open these pictures up in Picmonkey.  I add a watermark, and I resize it for the web, no need for a full blown 16 Megapixel image for a blog. Then I upload to my PhotoBlog.  I have other blogs on blogger as well, that I am experimenting with to find out what works best for me. Personally I find WordPress more powerful than blogger, but that's my opinion. I also have a SmugMug account where I upload images, better for sharing than Google+ or drive, but doesn't integrate into my workflow like google drive. You just can't have it all :)
  So far I am really happy with my Chromebook, which is causing me this headache with photo workflows. I plan to upgrade to a new one in a year or two. I would definitely get one with 4GB or RAM as I feel the pain when I have too many tabs open. I knew this C720 isn't the top of the line, but it works fine with me. I enjoy using it , it fits the bill perfectly for my home use.
  Until I find a workflow that fits/works for me I'll keep searching and trying new ways, methods to work with my pictures.

Things I miss in the Amazon Cloud Drive

  I've made the switch to the Amazon Cloud Drive for my photo's backup which I wrote about the other day. I did find a few drawbacks, that I wish are implemented in the future, metadata/keyword support, and support for my Olympus and Panasonic RAW files.  There is a work around for the RAW files, if I convert them to DNG, the Cloud Drive identifies them just fine. But the metadata/keyword, and the exif info viewing should be a basic option, but it's not. Why does this matter? Well it makes it easier for me to find my photo's if they are tagged, and sometimes I like to see all my EXIF info, not just date created, both these features are implemented well in Flickr and Smugmug.  So I hope these features will be implemented soon. Oh and the other thing I found so far. There is a nice feature to see what you have shared, but the preview doesn't work, just an annoyance, nothing more. I've also uploaded all the photo's and video's from my tablet, I would have never thought I had 5GB worth of short video's of our baby, but I do. So I need a new strategy for storing my video's probably at Smugmug. Sooner or later, all my photo's will be online, and in the cloud. Fits in nicely with my use of Chromebook at home :)

home user in a browser

  Being confined in a browser for all my computing needs, does have it's frustrating moments. I can't batch edit pictures, or add watermarks.  I thought I had a work around for this.  I select the images I want to upload, upload it to my Smugmug account, then I have to open each one to add my watermark to it, this process works fine when you have less than 10 images, but when you have more it can get annoying.  A second mistake I had in my workflow, is replacing originals, after adding my watermark with picmonkey, one of my favorite online image editors. As I realized after adding my watermark, and editing the same image again, I can't undo, or bring that layer to the top :( well, it was a lesson learned.
  Now my photo processing workflow will look like this, Select the images locally, using the built in gallery-viewer in chrome OS.  Add a -up to the filename.  Then go to Smugmug's upload, select all pictures with -up in the photo's file name, and upload.  When editing, I should always save a new copy, rather than replacing, since Smugmug offers unlimited storage anyways. I also use G+ photo's mostly for sharing with family and friends, but that also has it's limitation, as I can't get a link to it, that I can use in my WordPress blog.  Otherwise in general I am happy and satisfied with my Acer C720, but starting to realize more and more what it's not a good fit for, mainly photo editing and manipulation, and that's not due to it being underpowered, rather not having good tools available. It does cover my 90% of usage, the 10% is the photo editing part that annoys me. I can figure out workarounds, and I hope in the future this will change, by the time I upgrade my chromebook.

Editing on iPad

First I downloaded the photos to my laptop.  Selected the best I want to share, then edited, resized, and uploaded.  Just to think that later a frame would be a good addition.  So on google plus photo's I went to edit and wala done.  I ordered a wireless SD so editing and downloading will be instantaneous.  I tried the Wireless SD card, and I like it so far.  It is not fast, but I knew that before ordering.  I can start the camera up, and transfer the files to the iPad, Phone, or even my laptop/desktop.  It is a great feature, I feel like I upgraded my camera, and it works with my DSLR as well as my bridge.  I would recommend it to anyone.  If speed is important, make sure you read the reviews, the Transcend WiFiSD I got is a bit slow, but I don't care for speed that much in this case, while the price was decent.  The next problem I may face is the fact that I got the 16GB iPad.  My First tablet which was a Galaxy Tab 10.1 16GB I never ran into space problems, but then again, I didn't have so much content on it.  The iPad has my Favorite National Geographics subscription, which takes up approx 500MB/Issue, that's about 6GB, just Natgeo :)  and it is beautiful on the retina display :-)  Till later...