I tried Coppermine and I wasn't really impressed by the user experience it provides. Kind of ugly for a photo gallery. Gallery provides a better experience. OTOH, it seems to have a large following. Or at least more accurately it did have a large following at some point judging by the amount of traffic on the forums, though I get the feeling most people use Coppermine as an integrated component in another system (e.g., phpBB) rather than a standalone system.

I was also very put off by the author's rude and unfriendly attitude towards his community. This is from a blog post he wrote last year:

"Never argue with an idiot. They pull you down to their level, then beat you with experience". I came across with this quote today and instantly thought of coppermine forums. There is no dearth of such morons on coppermine forums.

Ouch. In the words of very cute anthromorphic bunny: "If you can't say something nice... don't say nothing at all."