Immich license announcement

[girish]

Just a heads up - https://github.com/immich-app/immich/discussions/11186

[nebulon]

We have also just updated the immich package to be compatible with that flow. Since I personally use immich every day, sharing my instance with 2 other people, I went ahead and tested the flow.

Basically once you update the app you will see a small info box bottom left with a tooltip explaining this:

After the smooth payment process one can activate the selfhosted instance via a link sent via email, resulting in:

I hope they can keep up the pace and continue to improve the app for a long time

[TheMoodBoardz]

I want to share with everyone here that there has been a whole debate around this as lots of us (myself included) are concerned with how everything is worded.

I personally won't be updating it till the issue around "licence" problem is worked out & I would suggest everyone do the same for now.

It's an amazing bit of software, but The wording is too "corporate", using the words like "free trial", & "licence" makes it sound like the project we know, love & have a thriving community for is going down the path or projects who pay-walled features that were once free.

Every project has to be sustainable - we all get that, but this was not how it should have been presented, worded or explained.

For those who want to read on what I am talking about:
https://github.com/immich-app/immich/discussions/11186#top

https://github.com/immich-app/immich/discussions/11186#discussioncomment-10086948

[nebulon]

I am both ways here, besides the payment as such (which I don't mind as the app is very useful to me and I am glad they have taken on the huge task to develop this for the self-hosting space. Also, I was anyway donating before when that was possible), the "Unlicensed" term showing in the UI sounds a bit contradicting to the app being AGPL. But on the other hand I also do not like all those donation style strategies (this could be a cultural thing also, where donations just feel like belonging some other areas of life). Once full-time people are working on a piece of software those have to be paid, otherwise they can't do that work everyone is benefiting from. Hobbyists and enthusiasts can still contribute in their spare time if they are well-to-do to have that spare time, but it's proven to be super hard to build high quality software only with those spare-time resources.

Of course there could also be a hidden agenda indicated by the wording they have started this with (there is little insight into their decision-making), but also it could be that they haven't found a better framing yet. I guess time has to tell where the project goes and already there is a good discussion about this happening, even with already changes committed to the repo.

[TheMoodBoardz]

@nebulon

All agreed - Nothing wrong with making money & making sure its sustainable long term, but I just don't want to lose this project to paywalls.

Immich have made photos actually private for me once again - Privacy is a right not a luxury and I would hate for it to become the next victim to lose what it was in the beginnings.

[girish]

is quite informative about their ideas and plans.

Just my 2c: I give benefit of doubt to the immich team here. After all, they have given us this great software away working hard for years and they continue to have my trust. They just want to make it sustainable. They will probably make some missteps but I think it's better to work with them than against them as a community. Personally, I am more worried if this one time payment is even sustainable and they end up focusing on some cloud hosting. I rather have paid+selfhosted than free+dead and paid+cloud. Best of luck immich team!

[TheMoodBoardz]

We all want them to be sustainable (we don't want the project to die) but how this update was presented to the community raised a lot of alarm bells for lots of people mainly due to how it was all worded & presented.

I fully support what they are trying to do, but I do not feel that monthly fees is the best way of doing it - having the option like they have at the moment to purchase it one time is great.

[girish]

@TheMoodBoardz yeah, fair. I have no idea about their business or their costs. In fact, I had not heard of FUTO previously and no idea how they are funded. So, if they can make it work with 1-time purchase that's great.

[TheMoodBoardz]

@girish Same here, I've not heard of FUTO before this. I hope that a 1-time purchase will work, but I do want the option to be able to donate more.

[girish]

@TheMoodBoardz we were already sponsoring alex since a while. That got auto-cancelled now with this FUTO move. I think we (the company) has to figure an alternate way to sponsor them.... let's see where all this goes.

[AartJansen]

So is immich now considered stable, and reliable? It doesn't seem that long ago it was recommended to have other backups of photos due to rapid development, and possible data loss

[LoudLemur]

Source First:
https://sourcefirst.com/

FUTO - it doesn't tell you what FUTO stands for or means.
https://futo.org/about/what-is-futo/

Is it F.U.T.O. or Futo or FUTO?

Via Arya:

"FUTO is an acronym for "Federated Union of Technological Organizations." It is a global organization that aims to promote collaboration and innovation in the field of technology. The organization consists of various technology-focused groups, clubs, and societies from around the world, united under a common goal of advancing technology and fostering connections among its members. The etymology of the term is derived from the first letters of the words in its full name."

[TheMoodBoardz]

@AartJansen It's still not considered stable.
You should always follow 3-2-1 regardless.

[timconsidine]

For some unexplainable reasons I doubt Immich will ever be stable officially.
I’m sure it’s a real feat of development, but something puts me off it.