This is the first time I’ve found something Linux can do that Windows (or OS X for that matter) cannot, that being to backup a large Flickr account.

I’ll explain.

My paid Flickr account has 1000+ photos in it. I use it routinely, realized it was frickin’ huge and felt the need to back it up.

The only semi-decent tool available is flickredit. But there’s one huge problem with it. If you have a ton of photos it simply won’t work. Sure, if you want to do periodic backups of say 500 photos or less it will do just fine. But over that mark it will just stop in the middle of a backup. You’ll have to start it all over again and do it piecemeal style (such as 50 at a time, etc.)

Very, very irritating. And slow.

Linux on the other hand has this thing called flickrfs. It mounts your Flickr account as a drive so-to-speak. However it is very "linuxy" and the installation may scare off some (read: command line crapola).

The alternative? Use Desktop Flickr Organizer. From what I understand it uses flickrfs and there’s absolutely zero command line crapola to deal with. This is directly available from Add/Remove in Ubuntu and looks like this when you go to get it:

When installed it’s available here:

When you run it, it looks like this:

Said honestly, if you use Flickr, you will love DFO. I’ve never seen its equal. It uploads, it organizes, it sorts, it tags, it does sets (and creation), it has search and most importantly – it downloads with no problems whatsoever.

I was able to download my entire Flickr photostream – which is 1000+ photos – on first try and DFO didn’t skip a beat. I was impressed.

Like with any application you use to access Flickr, you have to have your Flickr account "allow" it first. This only takes a few clicks of the mouse and you’re off to the races.

This is one real-life example of something Linux can do that no other OS can. In addition this Linux app is without a shadow of doubt better than any Windows or OS X offering for Flickr photo organization/backup. Normally whenever I see a Linux app it’s usually behind – but not this one. It’s way ahead.

If I want to backup my large Flickr account with no issues, I have to use Linux to get it done. Is this good or bad? Well if you’re a Linux user, not bad a’tall I’d say.

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