Ente is a beautiful, private cloud for your memories, with apps for mobile, desktop and web.
At Ente, we use Local AI to deliver features like face recognition and magic search, while respecting the privacy of your photos.
We’ll now join a cohort of builders pushing technology forward for an AI that is light, private and accessible.
So… like Immich?
But with fewer breaking changes.
People really underestimate the value of stability and predictability.
There are some amazing FOSS projects out there ran by folks who don’t give a crap about stability or the art of user experience. It holds them back, and unfortunately helps drive a fragmented ecosystem where we get 2,3,5 major projects all trying to do the same thing.
I wanted to like immich, but it felt like everytime I opened it there was a little box saying there was a new version available. Which would be fine except for when that new version wasn’t compatible with the server version I was running, and upgrading that frequently needed changes to my compose file because they changed some option or library or something.
I just want something that can store pictures of my family without a lot of tinkering.
The issue here is that these are solvable problems, release compat isn’t a new problem. It’s just a problem that takes dedicated effort to solve for, just like any other feature.
This is something FOSS apps tend to lack simply due to the nature of how contributions tend to work for free software. Which is an unfortunate reality, but a reality none the less.
In their defense, they also clearly label immich as under active development with frequent changes and bugs.
Edit: nvm I saw it was already discussed in another reply.
Immich is quite new clearly say they will have breaking changes.
Stable release planned for this year
The updates are almost always packed with cool new features so I’d rather have an amazing app with a bit of maintenance then get something stable that lacks features. Especially when stability is now just around the corner.
As far as breaking changes go, in the year of me using the docker install I’ve had maybe 3 updates that required me to change things and each one was leas than 10 mins of work. Pretty basic stuff if you are actually on the selfhosted path. Most people complaining seem to like auto updating apps automatically which seems crazy. I update when I have time to mess around, otherwise it just chugs along super stable.
I didn’t really mention immich directly here.
This is a problem which is endemic to casual software development like many FOSS projects. It’s a reality of how free software tends to be built in general vs commercial software.
Every time an open-source cloud gallery like Ente or PhotoPrism is mentioned, someone is sure to come along and talk about Immich.
I mean, Immich is cool, yeah, but it definetly is not a gold standard or something. Ente is a much more finished product.
Standard*
Oops, a typo. Thanks.
No problem!
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funded by an actual business.
You’re talking like that’s a good thing?
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Protons not a very good example bud
Why?
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Ok elaborate
Immich is funded by FUTO btw
If my instance of immich no longer works, I still have my files.
If an encrypted database of blobs crashes, I hope I can recover it.
When I’m self hosting, I know my preference.
No, like a duck.
This being self hostable makes me instantly like this. Something like G photos that I could self host and dump a lot of shit off my phone storage would be amazing.
I use Immich. It does what you described as well.
Check out immich, I use that self hosted and it’s exactly like Google photos. It even has optional facial recognition.
Been using it for a while, works well
So Ente, like duck?
Edit: just checked it out (yes it’s duck), what’s the appeal over a self hosted nextcloud?
Well ente means “mine”
Nobody ever talking about lychee ?
Yes okay it’s not GPL or written in a fancy new language (PHP is still alive xD). But it’s simple, elegant, no UX bloat, no ML or IA stuff… Just a plain simple self-hosted photo manager.
One thing I really liked about it, you can import you external photo’s with .xmp files, just one checkbox away.
The tag feature is simple but working as expected. Nothing fancy but it does best what’s it’s supposed to do !!
Call me old boomer but I really like the simplicity of lychee. It’s a bit like how reading an article from miniflux or wallabag… Simple html files without bloating your eyes or your brain…
Just my 2c, nothing to see here !
The selfhosted photo management boom happened when Google announced paid plans for Google Photos. That’s why there are lots of alternatives aiming at replicating every feature.
In my case, I don’t want to manually tag anything. I want a FOSS Google Photos. Nothing more, nothing else. If Immich was orosuction ready I would have akready switched. I haven’t read much about Ente, but I have no interest in the rest because they lack some key feature I really appreciate.
So, this question comes from someone with no background in development or marketing but, wouldn’t this money be better spent on develoment or marketing of Firefox. I’m a little more worried about having a long term alternative to Chrome based browsers than self hosting photos. This is not a knock on Ente or any other photo hosting script, I am very interested in a fully functional self hosted Google photos alternative, but my priorities start with Firefox.
I’m not sure why every time I look at this project, it rubs me the wrong way. Anyone found anything wrong with it?
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Any guesses why that is?
I just hate the comic style that is used in presentations like this, it is just too cutsey, and I can’t take it seriously
I want more ducks
It’s named “duck,” what do you expect?
What does Ente mean?
In Malayalam, Vishnu’s native language, “ente” means “mine”. Thus “Ente Photos” has the literal meaning “my photos”.
This was a good name, but still Vishnu looked around for better ones. But one day, he discovered that “ente” means “duck” in German. This unexpected connection sealed the deal. We should ask him why he likes ducks so much, but apparently he does, so this dual meaning (“mine” / “duck”) led him to finalize the name, and also led to the adoption of “Ducky”, Ente’s mascot Source
I was thinking why it sounded too convenient lol, i did not know the founder was a malayali. Now it makes sense. I hope they go on to be like proton
