With the exceptions of Gimp (Photo editing), Blender (3D graphics), and OpenXL(3D library), there are not a lot of prominent graphics software from the Open Source camp. BlueMarine from Italy seems to be wanting to change that with its challenge to Adobe’s LightRoom and Apple’s Aperture photo editing workflow software.
I have dropped by and taken a look at the program and I can say 3-5 years ago this would have been the perfect Open Source project. It would have filled a big gap in the market that Adobe and Apple have only recently filled.
But BlueMarine is still just an image browser and has yet to add any of the heavyweight features for color correction, contrast/lighting, defect correction available from the bigboys. However, there are two major openings for the team at BlueMarine: 1)scripting and 2)underlying database for photo metadata and image management. So far both Apple and Adobe programs appear clumsy on these two issues.
For example, Lightroom was supposed to use Lua as scripting language and SQLite for metadata information. But if you go to the Lightroom Design Center and enter the word SQLite, scripting, LUA, or batch processing – you get nothing, no help whatsoever. I think Adobe may have gotten cold feet. This is not strange as Photoshop has so many scripting languages (Actions, VBA, JavaScript, etc) – this must be a touchy topic among Adobe developers. Likewise, Adobe has pledged to adopt Google Gears – an offline/online Web browser Support API which includes SQLite. So you would expect SQLite which is a very fast and free database to be adopted in Lightroom. So why cant I find it in my new Lightroom 1.1 documentation or at the Design Center ?
In the case of Aperture there is Automator; but just as in the case of Adobe, the secret sauce is secret except to plugin developers. Ditto for metadata. In sum, these are the two fronts where BlueMarine could make the greatest impact without having to do a “Me Too” program – duplicating the brunt of Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture features. With the possible exception of selections or masks added to photo corrections – the photo-editing workflow from both Adobe and Apple is pretty top notch right now.
Also look at the history in Open Source Graphics software – it is not pretty. Blender and Gimp have some nice features but are clearly not on the same level as there commercial counterparts. And this is after at least 5-7 years of competing in the markets. So I will keep an eye on BlueMarine but don’t expect anything pivotal for at least 1-3 years.