Around 2 months or so ago, I switched my primary OS to Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu, but adds in the things most users want, like codecs for playing DVDs, Flash, etc. While I never use the Start-Search method in Windows, it is built into Mint by default, and I've used it there on several occasions.

BS

I just began using Linux Mint nearly full time, and it's been very nice, but finding software is still easier for Windows users if it isn't in your repo's.

You don't have to hunt anywhere, any non-Apple store that sells software sells Windows software, and all major software sites carry Windows software.

As for fussing with it, again BS. I've always had to do much more work getting Linux to print and install proprietary drivers than I ever had to do in windows, and the ultimate pain is felt if you do something that disallows X to start. Worst case scenario in Windows is that I'm at 640x480. Piss X off and you are in a terminal.

Not just date, date picture taken. The last time I checked, which was a year or so ago, it couldn't be done by setting any options, etc. My forum post is probably still at ubuntu. The cmd line is better for some things, but not all. If so, do you ever use a GUI? Think your Mom is going to write that script? For you and I a cmd prompt has it's advantages, but for the vast majority of users, it's useless.

Again, Linux pushing me to a command prompt. The point was that the file managers in Linux can't handle this basic requirement useful to users at any skill level. We can all do things at the command prompt if we can write a little code, but most users want to use the GUI.

That's my point. When moving photos from the camera to the OS I do maintain that exact directory structure, but in Windows I don't have to check every photo individually for the date taken, it's a column in the file manager.

No need to try to make Linux users smarter than they think they are though, Windows users and possibly even Mac users can be fairly mentally organized as well.

• Fewer viruses - Agreed
• Lower cost of ownership - BS, too much time is spent hacking up config files to make crap work or work right
• CLI/scripting system that actually works - BS, anything you can write and make work in Linux, I can in Windows
• Most open source software runs on it - Show me anything worthwhile that doesn't run in Windows or have a better alternative there
• Drivers for just about any piece of hardware ever built - BS, that's the primary thing most users have issues with, half baked drivers
• No blue screen of death - Agreed, but I haven't seen one yet in Win7
• Not nearly as resource hungry (unless of course you use Compiz :-) - Agreed, but neither was Win98 which is typically how Linux feels
• Penguins way cooler than butterflies

Mod me down if you want to, but I've yet to have Windows drop me to a command prompt after an video card driver update, OS update (Ubuntu anyone?) or had to recompile sound drivers after every OS update (Ubuntu on that one too). My file manager will display in a column what date pictures were taken so I can categorize them accordingly, can yours do that? It couldn't the last time I checked.

As a followup, Facebook Offers Scholarship to Female Computer Science Students - http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/07/02/facebook-offers-scholarship-to-female-computer-science-students

I wrote a blog entry a few years ago discussing how to do this with ACDSee and Fotki here - http://frozenpixels.wordpress.com/upload-your-acdsee-photos-to-fotki-with-tags/ I still stand behind ACDSee, but recommend against the pro version, as I've yet to see any functionality there that requires most users to upgrade. ACDSee lets you tag/categorize photos and videos, and is still very fast with my 18,xxx photo collection. You can export the entire catalog database to an easily read XML file, so you aren't locked into a proprietary format for life. Additionally, the ability to embed your tags/categories into the images (or vice versa - import existing tag data into ACDSee's database) is a feature sorely missing from most other utilities. Some other nice features are the ability to sort just about any way you'd want to, simple and/or filters (show me pictures that have Bob AND Tom, etc.), calendar views, and decent basic editing to crop, fix red-eye, and so on. I think there's a trial version you can download and play with. I'm still running version 7.0, and haven't seen a compelling reason to upgrade. There are free alternatives out there, but none possess all of the features of ACDSee, and most are missing some key ones IMO.

I'm glad you posted an actual size. I'm always curious what others feel is a large database, to me, 150G isn't overly large at all. The company I work for processes phone records, where we receive about 6M new records each day. Depending on the database (some for KPI metrics, some for warehousing duties, etc.) the sizes vary dramatically, but our "monthly" databases are typically in the 250G range, while our largest is currently just under 3TB. I checked what I believe is our largest table, and it currently has just under a billion records. It's been higher in the past, but we've lowered the # of months of data stored there recently. We are a Microsoft shop, and all of this is in SQL Server. For normal storage/queries, a decent SQL box will suffice depending on how many users are hitting it, etc., but we built a custom distributed processing system to do the actually processing work.