[narrowtux]

I would love to use the open source alternatives to Lightroom, but I find the cloud offering too convenient. The photos are available from everywhere, even on my phone I can import photos directly from the SD card and start doing light edits. When I arrive home, all the photos have already been copied to my computer where I can finish the project on the big screen.

Is there something that approximates this "effortless" experience using some cloud service and the freedom to use whatever software to manage and convert the photos?

[paperdigits_]

I keep all my raw files in git-annex. I wouldn't say that it is effortless, you need to have a good understand of git, but if you do, it works really well and is extremely flexible. Raw files go in git annex and sidecar files (XMP, PP3) go into git itself.

[ISL]

Portability has become a challenge for me in darktable (which is my only choice in photo-editing).

My archive is now large enough (~8 TB) that it is impractical to carry around. Keeping edits synchronized between home and remote is hard. Darktable's internal database doesn't play well with remote edits, either. It's tricky.

I'm convinced that there is a simple/clever solution to the problem using existing tools (rsync/git/google drive/etc), but it will require someone with a really solid understanding of Darktable's inner workings and data-structures to prevent corruption of the database/library or, worse, the archive itself.

[truncate]

Yes. I love Lightroom for that. It's very convenient and approachable. I think the dealbreaker for me for not using RawTherapee/Darktable was the performance. Lightable or Capture One are way more snappier to work with. You see results as you change things. Which is really important when I'm editing bunch of photos at once.