The problem with a lot of these applications is deployment and backup.
A list of components users should care about.
1. Deployment with egress or lan only
2. Simple back up and restore of applications version/app data.
3. Fault tolerant system like ZFS
4. Making sure the app data is viewable/accessible independent of the app itself.
There's not a single open source system that abstracts the complexity to achieve those 4 points. In fact there are not many paid products that achieve those goals. Most I've seen are subscription based.
Many might say go native docker/kubernetes. I would argue those technologies are fine but too high of a learning curve and fundamentally don't have a solution for a simple GUI driven backup / restore.
Synology is .. ok. They have working photo app and meh albums. But they keep pushing to make an account and log in into the cloud (since about 2 years I think), so their trajectory is not great.
I think points you rise are not that hard to solve with OS stack, to me the difficult part is the ease of sharing photos with others. People like familiar interfaces, adding photos to their own albums etc. Their experience of viewing your photos will never be that great, even when you have a decent uplink.
A list of components users should care about. 1. Deployment with egress or lan only 2. Simple back up and restore of applications version/app data. 3. Fault tolerant system like ZFS 4. Making sure the app data is viewable/accessible independent of the app itself.
There's not a single open source system that abstracts the complexity to achieve those 4 points. In fact there are not many paid products that achieve those goals. Most I've seen are subscription based.
Many might say go native docker/kubernetes. I would argue those technologies are fine but too high of a learning curve and fundamentally don't have a solution for a simple GUI driven backup / restore.