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Unbiased opinion: ZenPhoto or ZenPhoto20?

LondonLight.org Member
in General support
Hey

I would like to ask for an unbiased answer, as far as that is possible, to these three questions:
1- Which system should I use for my website, ZenPhoto or ZenPhoto20, considering I design my own themes and I want something that is solid and future-proof? I host photos and HTML5 virtual tours/panoramas.
2- Is there an up to date page where I can read on the differences between the two?
3- Do improvements in ZenPhoto20 get merged into ZenPhoto? i.e. not "has this happened a long time ago" but "is this something that happens often"?

I will post this questions in both programs' discussion sections, please see it as an honest attempt to reach a conclusion by a long time user and nothing else.

Kind regards

Comments

  • acrylian Administrator, Developer
    That is a fork from 1.4.6 by our former team member and despite the confusing similar name a now completely separate project. We have no connection besides the 1.4.6 code base and we neither monitor it nor incorporate its changes (we did one some months ago). It is also not supported over here. We might have been a bit silent the last time but it only looks like that ;-)
  • fretzl Administrator, Developer
    1) Hard to say. You would really have to try both and see for yourself.
    As far as future-proof concerns, nothing really is, is it?
    If you're concerned about the future of Zenphoto...don't be ;-)
    2) No.
    3) Apart from a few things some time ago, no.
  • trisweb Administrator
    As the founder of the project, I will not pretend to offer an unbiased opinion—you'll have to look for that from a third party. However, I will offer an extremely informed opinion on the state of each project, the way each is run, and the practical results. I will be fair, honest, and informative.

    Your exact questions have been answered above, so I will add some color. With no doubt in my mind, I recommend you use Zenphoto, the original. There are several reasons for this.

    First, I think our community and team is stronger. The support forum as you see here is more active, and we have a team of four active developers maintaining and improving the project. We meet on an organized, biweekly schedule. The team is the best it's ever been, in large part due to restructuring and regrouping after Zenphoto20 split off (side note, I have the other main team members to thank for this -- Malte, Fred, and gjr -- they're excited and working hard, and contributing far more than myself).

    Second, we have big plans for the future of the product. This work is actively going on in the background so it makes the best impact when released, but it includes improvements across the board based on the new team's excellent planning. I don't say this lightly—it's going to be great, we're very proud of it, and we hope to share more over the next few months.

    Keep in mind that Zenphoto20 didn't just break off of Zenphoto—it was a mutual decision. We have different opinions on various aspects of the project, from how to run the team and community, to the design of the product itself.

    We don't generally merge changes from Zenphoto20 because of this. Generally, they're not relevant to our project any longer due to the divergence, and we make different decisions about how it's built at a high level. That's okay -- we have nothing against the different direction, and nothing against the Zenphoto20 project. We support them and their efforts to make a great product.

    We're also hard at work on the new major release mentioned above. Our changes going forward will be more core to our mission: to simplify the process of managing photos and presenting them beautifully. We will be returning Zenphoto to its roots, modernizing it, and improving the quality of the user experience, and I think it will be well received.

    The choice is still yours, given the products and their strengths. I predict that the main difference will be that Zenphoto20 will continue to add features and complexity based on individual users' needs and requests, whereas the original Zenphoto will simplify and cut down on bloat and complexity, and improve the quality of the experience in general. I personally think that our product design experience, team expertise, and community strength means that we'll have a longer-lived, more "future-proof" project in the end, but it is up to you.

    Let me know if you have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer.
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