elementary OS will now feature a new application for vieweing photos

Jan 25, 2014 16:47 GMT  ·  By

Shotwell is a very well known application used to view images and it was recently made part of the greater GNOME family. This doesn't mean that other developers,, like the ones from elementary OS are now interested in it.

Shotwell is currently developed by Yorba, the same ones who are also making the Geary email client. The elementary OS team will fork the application so they can add it to their operating system.

“After some discussion with Jim, we think the best course of action is for elementary to fork Shotwell. I’ve taken the liberty of setting up a launchpad page for Pantheon Photos,” said elementary OS' Daniel Foré.

This doesn't mean that Shotwell will not longer be released under GNOME tutelage, but it seems that the Yorba foundation can't invest right now the time and the energy necessary to improve Shotwell.

UPDATE:

Jim Nelson from Yorba posted a very interesting message on Twitter:

"Yorba will continue to maintain Shotwell and work with elementary to improve the shared code base -- everyone wins."

This is great news and it means that GNOME will also benefit from any work done on Shotwell.