Hi Guys,
Just to chime in.... I think there are a couple of very different user expectations being discussed back and forth.
Photo Gallery
Some of us want to have some type of program that will take our phpto collection and create an easy way to browse and organize this. My thinking is that this would be a web page showing a bunch or galleries/albums/collections. This is something that Lychee seems designed to do, as well as the program mention in original post.
Photo Management
This is something more like a desktop app where one can "browse" images, tag, rate, convert, enhance, export, upload, etc. IMHO there is nothing better than Adobe Lightroom for this. Its a way to organize images and be able to "manage" the collection... something a person who makes a living taking pictures would use (or serious shutterbugs - like I can be at times).
Personally what I am looking for is the the first option. I have a chunk of images that are just sitting there, unused and unseen. I want my family to be able to see them, refer to them, download them, etc. To basically act as the modern version of the Photo Albums before digital photography. If it has a way to easily add new stuff, it would be awesome. I know there is instagram, facebook, picassa and all the other stuff... but that is sitting somewhere out there in the ether.
I have desktop computers and can install fancy software if I want to go for option 2. On this I agree with Trurl (after I initially disagreed with him)...
Shotwell, on their web site, seems to have a nice enough icon... I will take a peek at the one Sparkly used and see if I can enhance it. Stay tuned.