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Google Releases Picasa for Linux
chrisd writes "Hi, everyone. Today I'm pleased to announce that we're making Picasa, our photo management application, available for Linux. This is a pre-beta labs release and since we're still learning on how to best make software for Linux, we're asking that you submit your bugs as you find them. Picasa for Linux uses Wine internally; this shows a bit in the interface, but it works even better than we had hoped. Download it and check it out! A list of supported distributions can be found in the FAQ. We hope our patches to Wine will help make it easier for everyone to run Windows apps on Linux and other Unix-like systems. Thanks to our pals at CodeWeavers who did much of the heavy lifting, and to Marcus Meissner, whose libgphoto support patch was a welcome surprise."
So, use coral as your proxy :)
h tml
http://picasa.google.com.nyud.net:8080/linux/
http://picasa.google.com.nyud.net:8080/linux/faq.
Chris, looks good so far, big thanks.
liqbase
This is the kind of quality software that linux desperately lacks. It is interesting how wine was used here. I wonder if this will lead to the porting of other google apps like google earth.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
First of all, http://picasa.google.com/linux/faq.html doesn't exist.
Didn't really get any further than that.
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
Why is the Linux version restricted to the US only? The Windows version is downloadable anywhere.
PS - Can anyone mirror the binary somewhere? You can't download it using the above coral proxy.
No source code.
It's not exactly like they rewrote the whole thing to run on Linux. Had Wine not existed would they have bothered? Doubt it.
I don't get it. Why announce a fairly standard application on /.? Surely Freshmeat would be a better forum? And the other stuff about reporting bugs and submitting updates to other FOSS projects is hardly new, either.
Don't get me wrong - I'm always happy to see new contributions to the cause, but this makes me a bit uneasy, somehow.
I was thinking why Google being so much in favour of free information flow and so on (ahem, ahem, disregard Chinese Google) seems to be discriminating Linux users...
But finally things are beginning to change - and I do appreciate it. Will install it right away.
Good luck, Google!
Barts_706
"and to Marcus Meissner, whose libgphoto support patch was a welcome surprise"
Can someone explain this?
It's a propietary application that now also runs on Linux.
In case you didn't know, propietary applications can and do run on Linux.
If you don't want to use propietary apps, simply don't use them.
And btw., at least the porting of this app has given back an enourmous amount of code to wine, a free software project, which is great imho.
Step 1 - announce software
Step 2 - make all your links to software dead
Step 3 - Profit?
It's not a "fairly standard application" that we all take for granted. It's Google, a big corporation, openly and freely providing one of their major software applications for Linux (albeit using Wine). This does NOT happen very often, and we should bow down and praise those (Google) who do it! It's NOT just a "regular" software release.
ttuttle is a rankmaniac
He was referring to that the rest of the world can't download the product unless they use a proxy.
wait, why would an app like this be an issue, with cross platform development? wx-windows (WXwidgets now), C++ and compile for windows in cygwin er any number of cross platform compilers. The point being you have to start out with the intent of parallel platform development not app porting.. Trolltech, Java, wx-widgets, cygwin ( "google" a few of those :) )
At least one would expect that the software would be Linux native and not run in WINE emulation. If I wanted to use Windows software, I would use Windows for that.
Thanks.
Now we'll never see a navite port! Linux is going to die!
It might be faster to use the correct link where you are, but considering how I get:
/linux/faq.html was not found on this server.
404 Not Found
Error
Not Found
The requested URL
and the comments in the google groups page discovered its not working outside the US made the "apparantly" there.
I'm glad it works for you in Asia, but it doesn't work here in England.
liqbase
I don't know why this idiot complaint comes every time wine is mentioned.
People who use wine obviously don't want to use windows, but linux and wine enables them to do this, so what exactly is your freaking problem here mate?
Should read Google releases Picasa that runs under wine.
Picasa for linux would be a great thing, but it seems that a native version is either not in the interest of Google or out of their reach.
I like Picasa but I really hate the half assed ness of releasing an app for "linux" when it's simply rewritten windows code so that it runs under Wine.
Google, you want to gain the everlasting love of the linux people? Release a native picasa that does not use wine in any way, shape or form.
Everyone remembers how well Corel Draw ran after they slightly rewrote it so it ran better under wine and then statically linked it to wine and released a "linux version".
No thanks.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Is it me or has Gooogle disappeared? Wouldn't have thought that the 3 linux users starting a download could have caused that... :-)
This is because Google acquired Picasa, at a stage in its development when it was already relatively mature software.
At first I wondered why someone would make a Coral link to Google, Google probably being the least likely site to be
Via the Coral proxy I (The Netherlands) do get to all the parts of the site, including the download. .deb file downloaded very fast and the install on my up to date Kubuntu was just as quick and without a hickup. :)
The 20.7MB
My first impression is, It looks just like the MS version
The fact that it's not OSS can not excite me, I run software for what it does and so far this looks good. :)
At least ntil it's found out all my thumbnails are (for safe keeping) copied to google.com
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
All I ever get is a Windows-like error box that mentions some page fault. Then a license screen, then a second page fault screen...no go. :(
What kind of info does this upload to google?
i don't think its been used here, but in theory, if you use wineLib to port an application to linux, it should compile on other architectures. YMMV. I can't find the page on winehq.org that has the details.
That's pretty darn stupid, what's your problem Google?
One or two problems remain (and I'm sure more will pop up after I play with it for more than 10 minutes). It doesn't integrate into any desktop environment at all - its very much a Windows application hacked to bits so it runs smoothly in Linux, and it shows at points. With the exception of Desktop, it does not remember stored folders from either Konqueror or Nautilus, and maintains meaningless links to "My Documents", "My Pictures", "My Music" and other folders which don't exist in the file requesters. This could use some work.
I though Picasa was written in QT... so porting it to linux it was supposed to be an easy task.
Using my excessively-modified Gentoo install, with the Ion window manager, it works perfectly...don't know what everyone else is complaining about.
And before someone says something, no, I didn't try to compile it from source...
...thanks anyway guys.
While this may not be a direct contribution to open source, at least we have the positive side-effect of corporate time enhancing the FOSS landscape in some way. Google mentions contributing code to Wine - and I appreciate that.
Until someone decides to make an equivalent open-source version of Picasa, I'll gladly take a free version that enhances the community as a byproduct of its development.
Thanks
Do you people honestly think that any Google software will be released as open source? Even their Firefox extensions aren't open source! They're relatively good about contributing back to existing open source projects, but I don't know of a single novel application they've written and then released as OSS. If you're not going to use any non-open software, don't download stuff from Google.
Have you heard of a little app called iPhoto?
In this fashion it is absolutely no different than if the app linked to GTK or QT to release a "native" version. It is native. It is compiled for and runs under Linux without any API emulators or ABI interfaces required. That is the definition of a native application.
All this aside, have you even downloaded the thing? From your comments I would venture you have not. It is extremely well-polished and as stable as the Windows version.
As someone who has worked with WineLib, I can tell you this is no easy task. They have obviously spent a good deal of time on this. Then people like you go and rant on them some more? And you wonder why hardly any companies even go to the trouble of releasing Linux versions of software.
Do you have any idea how many hundreds of thousands of dollars in man-hours and effort it would cost them to re-write every single portion of Picassa using Glib/GTK or QT?
Go back to sleep.
Well, I don't use Picasa much.
But this is a huge step for Google- and I've heard somewhere that they will be looking into porting the rest of their software suite...
This means that a well-known company is acknowledging Linux as an operating system, which says something for the worldwide acceptance of Linux.
Maybe this is the "tip of the iceberg"?
Maybe I'm being hopeful...
-- If unsure, say "Why?"
Digikam is way better and GPL:
:-p
http://www.digikam.org/?q=image/tid/9
it does:
Tags
Albums
Lots of cool filters like red eye
Auto-rotate
DateView with calendar
TagView a la flickr
MAKERNOTE metadata viewer
EXIF metadata viewer
GPS locator in action
IPTC Metadata Viewer
and:
FlickrExport: export images to a remote Flickr web service.
SimpleviewerExport: export your images in a nice flash movie.
HTMLGallery: export your images to HTML
RawConverter: A raw image converter for digital cameras.
SlideShow: Slideshow with effects ripped out from kslideshow and 3D effects using OpenGL.
MpegEncoder: Create an MPEG slideshow from your images.
PrintWizard: A wizard to print images in various format.
JpegLossLess: Batch process your JPEG images without losing meta information and compression.
CdArchiving: Archive your albums on CD or DVD using K3b.
ScanImages: Scanner management using Kooka.
ScreenshotImages: Snap screen based on KSnapshot and adapted to Kipi.
Calendar: A plugin to create calendars.
SendImages: A plugin to send images by email, allowing resizing and recompressing before sending.
RenameImages: Batch image renamer.
ConvertImages: Batch image converter.
BorderImages: Add border to your images in batch.
FilterImages: Batch image enhancer using digital filters.
ColorImages: Batch image color enhancer.
EffectImages: Batch image transformation effects.
ResizeImages: Batch image resizer.
RecompressImages: Batch image recompressor.
FindDuplicateImages: Find duplicate images in albums.
WallPaper: Set your image as wallpaper.
TimeAdjust: Adjust image file time and date.
GalleryExport: Interface for export images collections to remote Gallery web server.
it also comes with a great and simple yet powerfull image editor:
http://www.digikam.org/?q=image/tid/10
So picasa: We don't need you
download and burn linux with one click on windows
No, it is not free nor nativ. So why not go with f-spot insted?
Nice announcement. But it ain't there! Where is it? "Google - Error - Not Found - The requested URL /linux/ was not found on this server."
Why is Google all of a sudden releasing programs for desktops? Despite MS attitude towards them, Google actually seems to promote the 'Windows World View' of all things computing.
Even the Linux-platform releases (like this one) use Windows concepts, architecture, standards etc. So long as Linux emulates Windows, its never gonna attain superiority as a better platform.
Is it Googles intention to establish that Windows is indeed the better option for the computing world?
-
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Just release the source already. It's not like Picasa is a cornerstone of Google's revenue stream and has to stay closed.
Yeah, what does it do that Picasa doesn't?
Thank you Google and CodeWeavers.
I know there are 100 fair reasons to mod this post down, but it just seemed important to say.
I often get depressed about changes to copyright law, patents, etc. which favor media companies at the expense of most citizens. This code contribution goes the other way. Thanks to everyone who worked on it.
"There is the commercial about how Mac is soooo easy for managing photos. Yet we have Picasa for Windows and now Linux that is totally free"
It's terrific that Windows and Linux users are getting decent software for photo management. Still, those who haven't used Macs don't realize how good iPhoto 6 is, or how well it integrates your photo library with your other applications (iMovie, Pages, Keynote, etc.). With Automator, you can build whole automated workflows that do stuff with your photos.
"I feel like most of the pointers of this current advertising campaign are false."
Feelings mean nothing if you haven't actually tried a Mac. Are you really so jaded by years of using PCs that you don't think a computer can be that much better?
"I hate malware as much as the next guy but someone needs to take Apple and all of their smug anti-virusless users down a peg."
The smugness is hard to fight sometimes, but we can all be allowed our vices, surely.
"XP, love it of hate it, is a very solid platform."
And yet, its usability flaws and security issues have driven droves of people (like me) in search of alternate platforms.
He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
Google did this kind of thing when they launched Google Video too. Does anyone know why it excludes the rest of the world when launching new sites? It's the only company I personally know that has web pages that only work in certain countries.
Yes I know that other commercial vendors have previously released commercial apps for linux, but this step by Google is pretty bold; they are the first commercial software vendor to deliver a Linux application for the masses (acrobat reader doesn't count guys..)
Linux for the masses has been suffering from the "chicken and egg" issue. Sure there is some awesome quality free (beer, speech etc.) software out there for Linux, but Windows and Mac still benefit from some must have (photoshop and al).
As far as my dad is concerned, he would happily give up his XP environment for Linux and rid of the Symantec yearly fee and al but not without prying Picasa from his kung-fu grip.
As a Mac user I must say that iPhoto isn't cutting it (weird structure directory and al). Picasa rocks and I would gladly give away a nut for it to work on Mac.
Now if Adobe would move their lazy a*s and get Photoshop up and running on Linux we would have another great day.
My geeek peers, do not underestimate the persuasive powers of all these little apps and how they contribute in maintaining Microsoft's steel grip on the desktop market.
Come to think of it, I'll have to try this out and show it to my dad. This could very well be the last drop that makes the bucket spill.
Very exciting days!
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
I had this installed at work, but they flagged it as a P2P app when they did a scan. Boy did I catch flak for that stupid thing. But the injustice of it all is that I have better stuff they could call me on. Dammit, I hadn't even used it in ages!
Hmm? I'm off-topic? Oh, right. Well it's great that this nice little app has been ported to Linux.
make your photo libraries available to other software?
Thank for that link. Now I only need Photoshop (or better Gimp) and I can kiss Windows goodbye forever!
Doesn't Google employees read Slashdot? I've multiple times told what I think is the best way to develop software albeit other might think different. Yet probably everybody agrees that wyoGuide (http://wyoguide.sf.net/) is by far better than Wine. wyoGuide is IMHO the only way how to do cross-platform development and the only way for OpenSource and ClosedSource. It seems to me that it's exactly perfectly suited for Google.
See http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html
I have been using kimdaba for some years now, and I find it to be an excellent program for tagging and searching in my images. Even my wife can figure it out.
Whats the big deal about picasa - anybody know both programs and could compare them?
And yet, its usability flaws and security issues have driven droves of people (like me) in search of alternate platforms.
And yet, your market share (desktop), along with linux might give you enough of the pie for a light snack. =-.)
I'll grant you it's a fine system, but overrated by its fans. ?!? Crap, I'm off-topic again.
Would you like some Picasa with that whine?
Picasa for Linux uses Wine internally; this shows a bit in the interface, but it works even better than we had hoped.
I wonder why Google hasn't embraced Eclipse so that they can code once for Windows and Linux (and Mac)?
The term "runs using Wine" seems to be a misnomer. Picasa was linked against winelib to allow it to compile and run natively on linux. The reason it would take so long is that, like wine, winelib is not 100% perfect with regards to the windows api (wine is a native implementation of the windows api, by the way, not an emulator) and they had to rewrite some stuff to make it use winelib without going explody. From what other people who've actually used the software seem to be saying, it runs pretty well. I have no idea as I have no use for the damned thing.
You are still innocent until proven guilty. What's changed is what they do to innocent people. - notnAP, #26891325
Google funded 225 WINE patches. How many people who won't even use Picasa will benefit from that? IMHO, that's more important than Google releasing a package that lets Picasa run on Linux.
run on os x?
for a minute there, i lost myself...
Everything Google does is Slashdot worthy, haven't you figured that out already?
Exactly what I needed ! :)
:). Big thanks Google :).
Now my friends will stop bugging me because I'm too lazy to post the photos I have taken at our new year's eve party
They aren't using wine.
They linked the program against winelib. Unlike using "wine picasa.exe", this provides a native Linux binary.
I guess you could say that means it's not a "true" Linux binary, but if that's the case, neither is any other binary linking to a separate library.
Plus, all their work with wine has made for a lot of patches and fixes.
You are still innocent until proven guilty. What's changed is what they do to innocent people. - notnAP, #26891325
it's quite interestinga y/047806.html
http://www.winehq.com/pipermail/wine-devel/2006-M
You are also going to take a lot of flak for this not being open source software. Remember, you are releasing to Linux and if you want to keep your Google is not an evil company image with Linux users you are going to have to eventually open up the source and probably GPL it if you actually expect people to use it.
Funny, I see most Linux users thinking quite highly of nVidia for consistently delivering reasonably good Linux drivers. Seriously, software doesn't have to be open source, it's as simple as that. And if you think it must be, I have to wonder how many alternative open source image managers there are for Linux for you to pick from? This software is good for choice, especially for the Linux users who don't mind closed source applications.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Picasa is much nicer and you don't have to pay for it. iPhoto was a breakthrough feature in like 1999 or whenever, but now it's pretty much inferior noobware.
can we get a native binary of this software (picasa, not wine), please? or even better: source code, so I can built it on my own on my sparc running NetBSD...
wine... shwine... yuck!
- Hubert
There are several applications on Google that are not available for Linux. Google earth anybody?
And while we are at it, please repair your stupid quoting habbit on groups.google and make "including" default again.
Usenet is not you personal playground. Buying dejanews and raping it did not entitle to do so with the rest of Usenet.
'Do no evil?' My ass.
(Yes, I am calm again)
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Of course, the Picasa for Linux product is far more tailored for Linux than that would be; it doesn't give you drive letters, it knows how to integrate into your file system, it knows how to connect to your desktop environment; it has a whole raft of other Linux specific features. I think it's even reasonable to hope that as it matures, it will become even more fully tailored to Linux.
But the bottom line is simple - try it. You may be surprised at how handy it is. And today you have one more application on Linux than you had yesterday. I'm not sure how anyone can be upset by that.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Maybe is the start of a new time, where big companies make software for linux.
Why?
If this installs and runs easily on Linux, why does it matter whether it's a 'native port' or some other hoops and tricks method? If it installs and runs, the that counts as released for linux.
One of the biggest prospects for Linux's wide-scale adoption will be the ability to run programs designed for Windows. If the end result of Wine's development is that programs only need written once and then can either use a customised Wine to run under Linux, or slot into a supported, pre-installed and easy to use version of Wine (like Crossover Office or Cadega), then that counts as a better conclusion in terms of getting all vital software running on Linux than requiring a complete re-write of every app we want which, let's face it, will never happen.
I've used Linux for over 2 years as my primary operating system. 2 months ago, I installed Microsoft Office via Crossover Office. It works as well as under Windows, installed as easily as under Windows thanks to Crossover's fine work, and has given me no problems. Although I still use Openoffice for most things, I have software in Access that I am currently porting to an Apache/PHP/MySQL system to which I need access from Linux. Plus, compared to 'Impress', Powerpoint is a breath of fresh air in terms of usability.
Wine provides the promise to be able to run any software on Linux. Where's the problem when companies like Google take advantage of that to release software they wouldn't otherwise have the time or manpower to re-write?
Is crushing a suspect's child's testicles illegal?
John Yoo: "No, [if] the President thinks he needs to do that."
I just loaded it, from your link even.
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
I just downloaded the .bin file and it installed fine and works fine.
Meh.
There is no cost for you to download and use it, so it is "free". It's just not "open". There is a difference.
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
This announcement has very little to do with Picassa.
Read between the lines (or even one particular line, explicitly): OUR patches to wine.
Google, which has a proven track-record of success when they start off in some strange new direction, has taken on the task of making Wine work better.
Think about that for a minute, and you'll get the "big" news here.
The the windows version installs under wine and works well in Linux. So, what is the advantage of a separate Linux version using Wine.
From http://picasa.google.com/
System Requirements
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0+
Maybe IE isn't such a requirement after all?
I second that notion. Writing portable code, or using cross-platform libraries remove the need for using WineLib. It is lazy. They might as well release it as a VMWare image hehehe.
Google Earth next please!
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
It's been fixed in CVS.
iPhoto has the features, but it crawls in my old G3 machine... what similar apps are there for OSX? (best if gratis)
Other software vendors might be encouraged to look at using Wine to add Linux support quickly and cost effectively. The more developers patching Wine and the more programs available the faster Wine development will run.
Sure in some ways native development for Linux might be preferable but in the long run Wine can make Windows irrelevant and eliminate the vendor tie in that Microsoft have. Crossover Office creates a middle ground for people who want to run Linux but aren't ready to leave Office. When Wine reaches a certain level of compatability Linux users will be able to have the freedom to run whatever software they want. Ultimately there's a potential utopia where people use Wine instead of dual-booting Windows. Who knows if it will ever happen but I'm not against it.
the more they over-think the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the pipe
Precisely which system isn't overrated by its fans?
well, it was good to see Google release the wine patches back to the community. atleast they are contributing some code back into the common pool (not to forget the summer of code initiative). anyhow, it's better than companies only seeping in code from the general pool. hey, incidentally - is that wine release a snapshot from code-weaver's wine?? let me fire up my wget ;)
Its interesting they chose picasa as their first linux-ported app -maybe they will see how many downloads they get (though in the UK we get a 404 response, not even a "go away foreigner" page).
I suspect that getting wine to work with picasa is probably the first step in porting other google apps (firefox toolbar, google talk) over to linux-with-wine.
Well this is one of the scariest things i've ever had to witness on my process list in recent times...
it's relevant because in the process of using winelibs, google contributed over 200 patches to wine.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
And how exactly would they pay for the Windows license to do that?
Throw the bums out!
I've used iPhoto. I used my friend's laptop for 5 minutes and in that time I was able how to figure out how to use OSX (it was my first time on it ever), figure out how to open iPhoto, find naked pictures of his girlfriend and copy them to my computer over SMB. That didn't work in my friend's favour, but damn it was intuitive.
Good point.
A lot of applications don't really integrate well into the desktop, there's not much new about that. But people still use them. They all have to use their own widgets. QuickTime, MSOffice, WinAMP, MusicMatch JukeBox, Windows Media Player... even PhotoShop doesn't integrate well in Windows, FireFox struggles to integrate well with desktop environments other than Gnome (but is doing a better job than most cross-platform apps), etc...
Twinstiq, game news
You could run it before... with some issues. This is them cleaning up wine, and their codebase to make the integration a bit cleaner. Not a huge deal, but nice nonetheless.
Throw the bums out!
I hope that sharpen function works @ Linux version. In Picasa Windows version, it's very frustating. sharpen don't work.
cassie@cassie-pc:~/Desktop$ uname -a
Linux cassie-pc 2.6.15-23-686 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue May 23 14:03:07 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux
Obviously, they think linux is not worth the money/time to make a native port, so why do they bother making a half-assed version of it, and in the process paying CodeWeavers? a pathetic attempt to shut up the linux crowd ?
Most likely, the software will not work as well as under windows and users will ditch it and use open source alternatives.
You either write a native port or don't.
Not to bash google, because I do love all the open-source support funding/dev that google provides... but again, I'm left in the dark, due the fact that I run a non-x86 architecture. In fact, I think the only wide variety of linux binaries with no source that I've ever seen were coming from Opera. Sigh... oh well, thanks for trying google.
Picasa End User License Agreement Thank you for trying out the Picasa software! By using this software, including certain third party software made available in conjunction with this software but not including software provided in source form and expressly licensed under other terms as set forth at http://code.google.com/ ("Picasa Software"), you agree to accept a license under and be bound by the following terms and conditions of this agreement (the "Agreement") with Picasa LLC and Google Inc. (collectively referred to herein as "Google"): Non-Commercial Use Only Picasa Software is made available to you for your non-commercial use only. This means that you may use it at work or at home, but you first need to obtain Google's permission if you want to sell the Picasa Software or any information, services, or software associated with or derived from the Picasa Software, or if you want to modify, copy (except as explicitly provided below), license, or create derivative works from the Picasa Software (collectively, "Commercial Use"). In the event that you would like to use the Picasa Software for Commercial Use, please contact us requesting permission for such Commercial Use (and detailing the specific type of Commercial Use requested) at http://www.google.com/picasasupport. You may not use the Picasa Software in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair Google's services (e.g., you may not use the Picasa Software in an automated manner), nor may you use Picasa Software in any manner that could interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of Google's services. This Agreement allows you to install and use the Picasa Software on a single computer. You may make copies of the Picasa Software and distribute such copies to other persons employed by your employer's organization, provided that each such recipient has had an opportunity to review and agrees to be bound by this Agreement prior to any use of the Picasa Software. If others employed by your employer's organization do not have this opportunity to review and/or do not individually agree to be bound by this Agreement and you would still like to distribute copies to them, you may do so provided that you have the legal right to bind your employer's organization and others within your employer's organization to this Agreement. If you do not have this right and the recipients do not have an opportunity to review and/or do not agree to be bound by this Agreement, you may not distribute the Picasa Software to them. If you have any questions regarding the terms of distribution, please contact us at http://www.google.com/picasasupport. For each copy of the Picasa Software authorized under this license, you may make one backup copy, provided your backup copy is not installed or used concurrently on different computers. You must reproduce on any such copy all copyright notices and any other proprietary legends on the original copy of the Picasa Software. Google is not obligated to provide maintenance, support, or updates to you for the Picasa Software. If you have comments on the Picasa Software or ideas on how to improve it, please contact us at http://www.google.com/picasasupport. Please note that by doing so, you also grant to Google and third parties permission to use and incorporate your ideas or comments into the Picasa Software (or third party software) without further compensation. Proper Use You agree that you will use the Picasa Software in compliance with all applicable local, state, national, and international laws, rules and regulations, including any laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from your country of residence. You shall not agree to, and shall not authorize or encourage any third party to: (i) use the Picasa Software to upload, transmit or otherwise distribute any content that is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, abus
...the wine part. Don't get me wrong, I'm no GPL freak or anything, closed software is fine. However, wine is a POS kludge and I have no desire to install or use it on my linux system, it just runs like shit.
*Fortitudo, aequitas, fidelitas.*
Forget about the Great Firewall of China.
It's now the Great Firewall of the USA.
Does it go on forever?
Google did this kind of thing when they launched Google Video too. Does anyone know why it excludes the rest of the world when launching new sites? It's the only company I personally know that has web pages that only work in certain countries.
Because launching software outside of the US is EVIL, and Google doesn't do evil.
Mod parent down; I see this guy all the time. Any time something even remotely cross-platform is mentioned (sometimes even not), he promotes his website as being the answer to solve all the problems. I've seen it promoted for everything from user-interface guidelines as a replacement to fix up Gnome, to somehow using it instead of WINE. This guy is a troll; mod him down.
The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers
Wine has been a silly idea from the start, and is as important to public adoption of Linux as the Windows emulation in OS/2 was (destructive rather than constructive). In other words, it makes everyone say, if I am just emulating windows, why not run the real thing, instead of the reverse tactic, having good applications that are desirable on Windows, get there through hacky procedures like Cygwin, and eventually leads people to believe that Linux is the real thing they should be running.
Does it even come bundled with all new Macs? I know it is part of iLife, which often comes bundled with a new Mac, but it doesn't come with all of them, does it? And what about free updates?
You can praise Google if you want, but I suggest you read the FAQ http://picasa.google.com/linux/faq.html. It's a kludge, and a nasty sounding one, at that. Basically it sounds like they commisioned Codeweavers to hack up a version of Wine which would run Picasa. Whatever they couldn't get working, they disabled.
Here's an abbreviated list of items that they couldn't get functioning properly (gleaned from the FAQ):
- CD burning
- picture importing
- support for movie files
- screensaver functions
- mp3 playback (in screensaver mode) and video compression codecs were both omitted due to licensing issues
Since I'm on a roll, let's not forget that it's not open source.
Now don't get me wrong, I give Google credit for doing it. It's a lot more than most others are doing right now, but as someone else pointed out, you'd probably be better off with Digikam http://www.digikam.org/.
People and companies who have money don't have it because they run out and blow it willy nilly. They have it because they have earned it and spent wisely. Just because they have a pile of cash doesn't mean they should spend it on something like this that might never earn back a single penny.....
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
What is this need for special software for "managing my photos", anyways?
I never understood it...
I just use a little thing called "directories". Hey, Nautilus and Thunar and Konqueror and Windows Explorer even have these nifty "thumbnail" things that allow me to see them all at once!
Why would I need special software for this purpose?
I'm honestly curious here... I've never been "managing my photos" and thought, "hey I wish I had a special application that could show me all the pictures in thumbnail format so I can organize them into directories..."
Granted, I've never tried Picassa.
What's so great about it?
It might be just over the average slashdotters head, or at least a little more than their personal experience would allow for.
Hope you get mod points and all
(actually, I'm the one karma whoring...)
2^3 * 31 * 647
Google have no obligations to the Linux/OSS communities, period. The fact that they've invested so much time, money and effort into not only their own Linux app, but also back to the Wine community should be applauded. Nobody is forcing you to use this. Don't like the way they've done it? Don't use it.
Seriously, give them a break. They're making baby steps in the right direction. They've released what, a pre-beta via their labs? And so many people on Slashdot are expecting it to be a polished product... that's just wrong. Their forte is definitely not Linux desktop apps, but from the sounds of things, they certainly want to improve. Oh shock! They're not there on day 1. Or day 2. Well, Linux wasn't written in a day, nor were the plethora of other desktop apps for Linux.
Let's not forget the human factor. Those programmers that worked on getting Picasa running on Google I'm sure would love some positive feedback to encourage them to continue working hard on it. I know I would. They're probably also unhappy that this pre-beta version isn't 'up to par' with the Windows version, but they're working on improving that. Reading their FAQ endeared the team that did this to me.
As for Wine usage. Big deal. It's not like they're charging you $69 for the app. It works, and they aim to improve it. Sounds to me like they had a hard time trying to get it to work on so many different distros, instead of just say.. Red Hat. This project was only announced 4-5 months ago. Let's hope to see Google Earth before Christmas!
This space for rent.
...then google will just port other apps? like google talk? ... the windows installer is just 3 mb ... the deb is 16 MB
it's sad
Sent from my desktop computer
quit telling everybody about our paradise man!
Sheesh, we go to all the trouble of keeping knowledge about it secret, and here you are going off at the mouth about how great it is.
I mean, we even got plenty of rats and stuff! Shhhhh, or we'll make you go live in that A world!
2^3 * 31 * 647
I am not impressed. I installed this thing and it tells me that my pictures are located in Y:\pics instead of ~/pics. Also, it is too stupid to realize that the simlink on the desktop is the same directory and it indexes everything twice. Stupid!
This actually sounds like the most cogent statement on this thread. Oh for mod points.
Furthermore, do you believe that Google is going to help in backing the KERNEL, or do you think they will stick more with INTERFACE oriented designs/help with (F)OSS?
I say all application(/interface), no kernel
2^3 * 31 * 647
How anyone is complaining about this is absolutely ridiculous. This is a milestone for the Linux community, your Linux on the desktop dreams just got a little closer. It looks great, installs with NO issue and is a great application.
Thanks Google.
Damage control.
"I'm not sure how anyone can be upset by that."
You must be new here: Welcome to Slashdot!
For all their money, it seems like they are in perpetual beta mode.
Just wondering, google.
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
For god's sake!!! Use Qt!
Linux / Windows and mac support from one code base!
Then at least we can have a native application.
Actually, I'm with you. I have never felt like I needed more organization to my photos. I'm pretty good at knowing where they are. I think this has a lot to do with how much you "share" your photos (or how unorganized you are).
The big advantage, as far as I can see from 5 mins of trying it, is the tagging feature (like gmail). So you went to 6 different places with Jennifer and 4 different places with Mary. Do the photos go into directories of the places you visited or into Jen and Mary directories? If you have tags for both a place and a person, it becomes very easy to get "all the photos of Jennifer" (even if it's only to delete them so Mary doesn't see).
No source? Okay, that's understandable (I guess), and I have to admit, I still buy closed source games (for Linux). But . . .
It uses WINE? With all due respect to the hard work put in by CodeWeavers and countless others on WINE, WINE is not the answer. WINE is a stopgap measure, a way to open people's eyes to the power and Freedom of open source while still letting them use apps they are comfortable with. When you have the source code to an application and you use WINE to "port" it instead, that shows that you are either really lazy (which I'll grant is one of the three great virtues of programmers), or you aren't really interested in porting your software to Linux.
And that's not even getting into the fact that WINE is ia32 only, so this only runs on one of the many platforms that Linux runs on. If they'd only open source it, I predict it would soon become a true port without WINE, and run on all platforms that Linux runs on.
This isn't software for Linux; the correct title of this article should be "Google Donates Patches to WINE" with a sideline that WINE now runs Picasa.
Nathan's blog
I know that the real answer is to try both and decide which I like best. Given that I don't want to organize my entire image collection twice, though, just to see how easily I can, I could stand to be pointed in the right direction.
Also, has anyone figured out how to get either app to leave pictures in their source directory? I really don't want to copy 10GB off the network shares into ~/Pictures for the sake of a single application, regardless of how good it might be.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
It's too bad this isn't linked in the headline.a y/047806.html
http://www.winehq.com/pipermail/wine-devel/2006-M
This project was an experiment to see how quickly they could get picasa working with wine.
Beatles fan, huh?
I'd love to be able to use Picasa on a Mac....
I use iPhoto and it sort of does what I need it to do, but playing around with Picasa I thought it was a very nice bit of software, at an unbeatable price.
Yeah I know you can dual-boot macs these days, but mine can't. Ah, and Google Earth would be even higher on my list since there's no mac alternative that I know of....
The Bigger The Headache The Bigger the Pill
over 200 patches were contributed back to the Wine project.
That's awesome.
I [may] disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
How does picasa fare against f-spot or digikam?
> Google Releases Picasa
...nevermind!
Google? Oh, so that where it came from! I thought it was a malware that somehow got installed on my computer. "Hello from Picasa!" -- I thought it was horrifically traitorous social engineering.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
WINE is what lets me run Linux on my work computer. I can run the one legacy application I really need, and use native Linux applications for everything else. If WINE didn't exist, I'd be stuck on XP.
So I don't see WINE as destructive or silly.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I really hate this "but it's not open source" attitude! If someone gives you a new car as a present, is your first response "but where are the blueprints" ???
How does Picasa compare to F-Spot?
It seems to me that Google needed those specific patches for its work. So they would do them anyway. After that they had two choices. Either do not release the patches and maintain their own internal WINE fork, or post them to WINE list. And they didn't chose the "complete jackasses" way. Wow. That's how open source works maybe?
Now play with your lego and wake us up when you release some open source chrisd.
Hey Chris ...
Please tell the powers that be to port more Google apps, for example Gtalk, which can be a Skype replacement.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
"[...]we're still learning on how to best make software for Linux, [...] Picasa for Linux uses Wine internally [...]"
Nope, that's not the best way. Just thought you might want to know.
It uses WINE? With all due respect to the hard work put in by CodeWeavers and countless others on WINE, WINE is not the answer. WINE is a stopgap measure, a way to open people's eyes to the power and Freedom of open source while still letting them use apps they are comfortable with. When you have the source code to an application and you use WINE to "port" it instead, that shows that you are either really lazy (which I'll grant is one of the three great virtues of programmers), or you aren't really interested in porting your software to Linux.
Hmmm...
So they use Wine which lets them easily port an existing application to Linux. Wine is Open Source...
They could use QT which has a Windows and Linux version... But then they'd need to rewrite almost entirely the application.
They could use GTK, but then...ahh they'd have to significantly rewrite their app.
So Google releases a free product, invested significant money into developers to "port" the app, have it readily available for download, etc.., and you're ragging on them because they're lazy? Exactly how many millions have YOU contributed?
Wow, this thing is pretty cool! It's working good, and it's a really fun app to play around with! Thanks Google!!
Sorry, but WINE does NOT run picasa. Picasa runs natively and uses WINE internally as its cross platform library. You might as well whine about anything that uses qt to easily port between platforms.
I've wanted for a long time already to move my dad to Linux - I'm tired of maintaining his XP. However, the only thing holding me back was the lack of support for photo management (and yes, I know about gimp and digikam. It may be good enough for me, but not good enough for my dad---he's no computer pro). He currently uses Photoshop Elements, but I bet he can do just as well with Picasa. So, once Dapper goes gold, I'm reinstalling his comp to Linux. And if this makes Adobe reconsider and release Linux versions of its software, the better. Now my wife's father needs Autocad. I'd like to move him to Linux as well, I'm tired of his malware-infested machine, but unfortunately, there's no much hope Autodesk will move to support Linux any soon.
Dear Google:
We do not want your help. We do not want your software. We are just fine inside our own little clique, and we don't anything to do with ports or the mass market.
We'll be over here with our hands cupped over our ears and saying, "LA! LA! LA! WE DON'T LIKE YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE FRIENDS WITH THE NON-GEEKS!"
Love,
The Linux Community
The slave morality of Richard Stallman and the master morality of Bill Gates, indeed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche
If iMovie was available separately at about $20, I'd think it was a bargain.
But to get iPhoto, you have to spend $80. You also get 4 completely useless applications: iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand and iWeb. Sure, some people might like them, but none of those four are even remotely of interest to me.
Completely froze after about 10mins of use. Intel 4 3.2ghz gentoo linux 2.6.x E17, kde
no god is good
1. It would be nice if it was OSS. :)
2. It is great they ported it and released it for free use on Linux. Yes I will use it and thank you Google.
3. It is fantastic that they contributed to Wine so other people can port Windows Code to Linux.
4. Where is Google Earth for Linux
Yes I am afraid that way to many people for get that "you should never look a gift horse in the mouth".
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Sadly, running windows applications didn't work for OS/2 Warp.
They use the same binary on both windows and linux. How is wine not running picasa? When I run a binary under wine, I don't just type the name of the binary, I run "wine executable.exe". Isn't wine an environment that wraps around Win32 executables? (If not, I am prepared to be schooled.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The Great Firewall of China is about the Chinese government oppressing people within China. The "Great Firewall of the USA" is about some private companies only letting people from within the US (or with US IPs) download their product. This is no different than those bloody contests that only Americans can enter. Americans seem to have problems differentiating between walls designed to keep people out e.g. your house's walls, and walls designed to restrict the freedom of people within e.g. prison walls, the Berlin wall. If I hear one more illiterate American comparing a wall around the US-Mexican border (designed to keep people out) to the Berlin Wall (designed to keep people in, like a prison wall), I have no idea what I shall do.
Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html has been for a while now. works great.
Sweet! I've been wanting Picasa to run on Linux for a long time now. Digikam was doing okay for me, but it just wasn't quite as good. How long before the Debian/Mepis repos pick this up???
To all the whiners and FSF bigots who don't like it because it's not "free as in speech": That's nice. Now go away before YOU DISCOURAGE PEOPLE FROM USING OR DESIGNING FOR LINUX!!!! If you don't want to use it, that's your choice. Now go away and leave the rest of us alone.
To all the whiners (or is that anti-WINErs?) who want Google to rebuild Picasa from the ground up so that it doesn't have some mythological "Windows taint": Grow up. WINE is a fine set of Linux libraries that greatly increases our ability to run applications. We should all be immensely grateful that Google has contributed so much to the advancement of WINE.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Try turning on logging, e.g.
WINEDEBUG=+foo picasa > log.txt 2>&1
Then after it freezes next time, check the log.
Maybe there'll be a stack dump you can report back
to google. Or email it to me, dank at kegel.com.
It doesn't work in Hong Kong, so I don't know what definition of "Asia" is being used. It's bad enough they block us arbitrarily; but it's even more insulting that instead of an explanation we just get a 404.
Also, it's "apparently".
I think you're giving Neil too much credit *grin*
Bark less. Wag more.
Picasa's EULA doesn't allow redistribution, so technicallyc asa/picasa_2.2.2820-5_i386.deb
it can't be added to any distro's repositories. However,
look carefully at the download URL,
http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/pool/non-free/p/pi
you can probably just add Google's repository to your sources list...
try it out and let me know if that does the trick for you.
(Disclaimer: I set up that repository, and I don't really know what I'm
doing yet, so it might have some issues yet.)
Gives hard to find yet oh so needed info
boldly going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse
Isn't wine an environment that wraps around Win32 executables?
:)
No, Wine is an implementation of the Windows API. When a program calls a Windows API function, the appropriate Wine shared object is called instead of a Windows DLL. This is what the GP meant by his comment about Qt: You could easily implement the Qt API and then substitute your version for the official one so as to have the Qt app load yours at runtime. The wine program itself is a program loader, designed to properly load an execute a binary compiled for Windows.
You can probably find out more here in a more detailed and accurate form
That's nice of them. Thanks google. OSS needs more contributions like this.
Now if Google didn't want to *fund* those 225 patches, they could write their own WINE instead of using the crap existing WINE which although 100% free does not do what they want and they have to patch it. That would be cheaper because if they wrote their own windows emulator it would not need patching.
I've looked, but haven't found the post that mentions what I think is a major event about this release. It's not that all of us linux-geeks finally have picasa for linux, though I'm happy to finally see it. It's that Google has demonstrated concretely major tools and/or applications can be made available in Linux!
This is a bridge from the Microsoft community of users to the linux world. I provide my neighbors PC support, and I've helped them recover from so many nightmares that were the Microsoft world of viruses and vulnerabilities, and mysterious lockups and crashes (we started with Windows 98, and are now up to XP).
I've coached them through the digital photography transition, and with the emergence of Picasa, they were fat and happy.
But the complaint of Windows and the pitfalls therein remained a constant. Funny, I promised them when they upgraded to a new computer and XP their world would be so much better. It wasn't. They actually considered taking the new machine outside and shooting it (I'm not kidding) with a huge Symantec debacle dominating their Windows experience.
I'd considered broaching the "Linux" suggestion, but it was clear their number one use and activity on their computer, one which they would NOT do without, was Picasa and digital photograph management. Sigh.
The release of a Linux Picasa (albeit, almost alpha) is a watershed event. If kinks are quickly fixed and the Linux Picasa matures soon, my neighbors, and others will soon have the option of Linux and a much more stable (and secure) platform (not to mention, free).
An added side benny, all of a sudden, my support role becomes enjoyable, I love working in the *nix environment, and many tools and apps I've had around for years become available for friends and family -- just wrap a little friendly html around them for their ease of use.
Thank you, Google.... This could be the beginning of a wonderful friendship!
WINE is not the answer
That's right!
Because everyone knows that Linux has only ONE programming API for any given task, and the thought of introducing another usable API (that might even be useful on other popular OS) is unacceptable, and contrary to the spirit of Linux!
After all, there's exactly ONE API for UI widgets. And windowing systems. And filesystem access. And...
The last time a program was converted over to Linux using Wine, it failed.
In fact all programs Wine should fail because one, it is not a native API.
Why can't people rewrite their program?
Also I am sadden that Picasa is only for x86 Linux.
wine suffers from os/2 syndrome. Developers then thought they would just write their app via win16 or win32 and the OS/2 users would figure it out.
They could save development costs since developing for 2 api's and porting them would be expensive.
Guess which software sucked the most on which platform? OS/2@. I remember reading about Lotus being 12x slower than the windows version and then the port sucked so customers didn't buy it which then created a cycle of users not wanting os/2 until more software was developed.
I refuse to touch whine. The fact that google had to provide 200 patches just to get the program to compile and there are many bugs and missing features shows me its not ready nor will it ever be ready.
Today, you can write an app that is crossplatform with proper design with minimal increased costs but Picasa wasn't designed as such.
WHat worries me is that it will lead customers to think "well, if its made for windows and runs so good on it, then why dont I run it on the real thing?".
I guess its good you got access to run I assumed it was not possible from what I read over the years about wine rewriting c++ in C to support things like the MFC.. shudder.
But for me wine wont be used on my systems anytime soon. I'll use free alternatives to win32 software or boot windows to run windows apps.
http://saveie6.com/
iPhoto (and iLife) comes bundled on all new Macs. You get the minor updates, but an upgrade from iPhoto 5 ->6 is only available as part of the $79 iLife. iPhoto 6 is a vast improvement from early versions. It's a little slow on a 450 mhz G4, and still has room for improvement, but it is headed in the right direction.
That is what killed it.
ISV's figured they could save money to just write to win16 and have os/2 do the rest. Meanwhile the ports sucked and were buggy. MS rewrote win32 with windows95 to make sure none of the apps ran on os/2 warp which put the nail in the coffin.
Not to mention the problem was so bad IBM had to pay developers for native os/2 ports. They sucked royally compared to the windows versions and the os/2 ports were cancelled the second IBM stopped writing them checks.
OS/2 was a supperior os, but if they refused to support win32 and win16 I do think it would have helped the os survice.
Instead of helping users switch it only reminded them how great Windows was as it was the real thing the apps were designed to use so why not switch back? Wine is doing the same with unix and is more harmfull then good.
I prefer a native app or one actually designed to be portable rather than a emulated or hacked version running on a hacked statically linked library that is beta quality.
http://saveie6.com/
I haven't had much of a chance to play around with it yet (I'll give it a more thorough examination after I get back from class this evening) but after having played around with it for maybe half an hour, here are my impressions, the good and bad.
First all all, the application is pretty. I know a lot of people don't care about eyecandy, but the user interface is definitely slick. It did a good job of finding all of the images scattered throughout my disks. The program started out pretty snappy, but it did eventually start to crawl. I'm not sure if this was a bug or just because I have a lot of images and this machine could use more ram. I did find it somewhat irritating that my only options when first starting up were between "search only the desktop" and "search everything". It would be nice to have an option to search, just my home directory. As it is I ended up with quite a few directories containing things like the brushes for GIMP and images for various games. It seems to be fairly trivial to tell it to remove certain directories from the index, so it's not a big deal, but it is a small quirk that is slightly irksome. There is a bug in the way it handles PNG images with transparency, but it is pre-beta (which actually means beta in google-speak) software.
Until now, I've pretty much used either digiKam or the image view in Konquror to view images. Picsa is nice in that it automatically looks through the whole disk instead of just in my Pictures folder, but digiKam feels a bit cleaner. I haven't had much of a chance to play with Picsa yet, but I have a feeling it won't be as integrated into the rest of my desktop either (for example, with digiKam I can view an album, and then drag an image from the album onto someone from my buddy list in Gaim to send them that image.).
Picsa does seem to offer more editing options than digiKam for tweaking photos, and while it seems to work fairly well, I still prefer my own solution for very basic photo adjustments (which you can find here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/jphototweek/) although having it integrated into the program is nice.
It does have the polish I associate with google as well. When I saw that it used Wine I was reserved to the fact that I would end up spending several hours hacking a version of wine to run it, the fact that it was as easy as installing a single RPM and everything "just works" was nice.
I'll try to play around with it more tonight, and I may post back with a more complete comparison with existing Linux solutions and a review of the program.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Apple's commercials may be obnoxious and may even inaccurate, but they're commercials and if you're offended by a commercial maybe you need some counseling regarding your self-esteem.
Lastly, just because Linux and Windows have Picasa doesn't mean they've suddenly attained the zenith of photo management, the Mac has iPhoto which is arguably better than Picasa and has a much better integration with the rest of the iLife suite. And, what happens when in two or three months Google makes an OSX version, will you retract your statement and proclaim the Mac as the best computer for photos? I doubt it, partisans rarely apologize.
Anyone who whines about being modded down should be.
iPhoto is wonderful for creating slideshows and photobooks but it stinks for image file management.
They really need to add the option to browse existing folders without forcing the user to import images (which is ridiculously time consuming and prevents direct access over the file and folder structure.)
This is the one issue that has dogged me since switching to Apple. I have tested EVERY image management app out there and none meets my needs.
Looks like the Gnome system monitor.
Do you know if they plan a linux-ppc version? The wine-faq says you need the application source code and winelib to do that. How true is it that you need winelib and not just wine? Also any idea if they plan, and how easy or hard it will be, to port to Intel Mac OS X when wine starts working on that platform in (crosses fingers) third quarter 2006? Also if winelib is going to get ported to ppc Mac OS X, repeat the previous question for ppc Mac OS X.
Thank you for your time.
Tried Adobe Bridge? It does what I want it to do.
This is the real importance of the announcement, IMHO.
Remember, WINE is not an emulator. It's a reimplementation of the Windows API (i.e. a "clone"). As such, it's only as good as its weakest component and while WINE is quite good at a lot of programs, there's still a good deal missing.
The reason WINE is so important is two-fold. One, it's another attack vector and if you want to fight the Microsoft monoculture, you need all the attack vectors you can get. Two, it allows more people to switch to linux, even if a mission-critical application isn't natively available. Personally, I would have a really hard time without VirtualDub and despite being FOSS, there's no Linux version and no plan for one (and, no, I don't have the time - and probably the skills - to do it myself).
That said, I don't understand why Google did it this way. It would be so much easier to make a Linux version from scratch (using Qt or GTK+). Don't get me wrong, I'm happy they are doing it this way. I think massive improvements to WINE and the added focus on it are much more valuable than having a Linux native version of Picassa (which really only adds a bit of polish to already existing Linux applications).
Not informative....
It was comparing the orginal windows version on both OSs....
_
Its just a piece of code some company does not want to give the source. It does not make them evil. Do not compare it to "Rights and all". Yes its evil when somebody sells you a song, no matter what the price and tells you that you can listen it only on your CD player not on your ipod. But when somebody makes a application and gives it away for free, or even if not for free its that guys choice. Look elsewhere, dont whine and dont bring in weird analogies which do not hold. Lemme ask another thing to people who say all software should be open source. Will you "open source" your labour. Will you come to my house and set up my network for free? I have seen people argue that any developer who has spent hours on a software should release it under GPL, but then I ask them if they are ready to put in 10 hours of network setup and not charge anything for that? Yes open source is great. Its a wonderful concept, but in the end its a personal choice. Leave it to the developers the decide what do they want with your code.
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
The link was just slashdotted that's all!
/. 'ed GOOGLE
OMG we
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
from my experience, Picasa already worked quite well on Wine, they just made some modifications to get the fringe parts working (like camera support, etc)
Having said all that, Let me just take this text to say, Thank You GoogleMeisters, Thank you.
I love this. From Wine mailing List.
The Picasa for Linux team had a blast. It's not often you get to pour resources into a vital open source project to help ship a commercial application! We hope we get to do it again sometime soon, and we hope the results are good enough to encourage other companies to give Wine a try.
Let me echo a slightly paraphrased version of the above.
It is not often that the company you work for allows/pays you to pour resources into a vital open source project, but when it does happen it feels very satisfying to be paid to contribute to "the common good".
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
Wine is an implementation of the Windows API. It is not an emulator of any kind.
Do you even know what the "E" stands for in WINE?
Surprise, Emulator.
Well there has been a lot of fuss about what Google did, this one deserves applaud. Many things happen evolutionarily, and this is certainly in the right direction. There are certainly many reasons to beleive that Google will get engaged in more open source projects and that would be fantastic news. But don't expect it to happen over night.
Big thumb up for the team at Google!
This is a pre-beta labs release and since we're still learning on how to best make software for Linux, we're asking that you submit your bugs as you find them.
I don't know who modded this point to 4. It's a pre-beta release for God's sake.
I wish there was a "Stupid" rate on slashdot.
Don't be silly.
WINE exists not because people want to port the Windows API, but because people want to run Windows applications even they hate the API.
don't expect anyone submitting code to SourceForge to find that
Are there more linux users than OS X? I mean, that's good and everything, but will we get our version soon? anybody know?
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
When you have the source code to an application and you use WINE to "port" it instead, that shows that you are either really lazy (which I'll grant is one of the three great virtues of programmers), or you aren't really interested in porting your software to Linux.
Or that you've used Microsoft-specific APIs and really don't want to essentially rewrite the entire application. Cross-platform compatibility can be annoying even when you have planned for it, when you haven't... well let's just say I wish they put energy into using cross-platform tools from the beginning next time, rather trying to port old stuff.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
You seems to be a Windows fan, aren't you. Yes for Windows I'm a troll but other Slashdot readers seems to like this, else I wouldn't have gotten a Karma Excellent.
But instead getting personal I'll give you the chance to explain why you think wyoGuide is wrong or what is wrong. Just tell us all why you think the Picasso Wine implementation is better and Google should keep developing that way.
O. Wyss
See http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html
~ roscivs
But I can't find any place to beg for a port =P
Latest Wine compiles with additional patches in Solaris so it should be possible, shouldn't it? Lacking programs are the reason I don't know for sure if I should run Solaris or Linux.
But if that was the reason I choosed OSes on I would be running Windows.
Google did this kind of thing when they launched Google Video too. Does anyone know why it excludes the rest of the world when launching new sites? It's the only company I personally know that has web pages that only work in certain countries.
This has nothing to do with Google policy. One of the download servers had a problem which was resolved. Please download and enjoy, wherever you are.
Site now up worldwide?
Picasa Linux version also in Europe
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
1. I am not an american.
2. If you believe everything your government tells you about china, then you have already fallen victim and your opinion is void.
Does it go on forever?
I assume that, if iPhoto is the zenith of all photo management, then Picasa is gunning for them in terms of features, integration, and functionality. It seems like it would be redundant to try to compete with a program that is packaged with an OS and is zenith-tastic. More power to Google if they want to port it to Mac.
You make an interesting attempt at an analogy regarding Ford and Chevy. I guarantee you that Suzy Kolber (not sure how to spell it) is not going to sway people to "switch", whereas in the mysterious world of computing I believe that the general populous is ingorant to how things work. When was the last time you called someone "automotive illiterate"? It is a different situation and misinformation is more powerful regarding the ignorant.
Photoshop has a nice folder view since version 7. Won't make your albums though but maybe Photoshop Elements would. Worth looking into at the very least.
He was referring to that the rest of the world can't download the product unless they use a proxy
Speaking as a Googler, this is incorrect. One of the download servers had a problem which was resolved. Please download and enjoy, wherever you are.
Site now up worldwide?
Picasa Linux version also in Europe
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
Beatles and Nintendo for the win!
They actually use the Windows binary instead of linking with winelib.
This means they are 100% constricted by the Win32 ABI. There is no way to escape the worst of the Windowsisms, and no way to bypass things that are badly emulated.
Enough said.
-- Boycott Shell
Also, it's "apparently".
lol errrr I was checking if anyone was awake.
*refer to sig*
liqbase
If you like "kill", you'll love "xkill". It is without a doubt my favorite UNIX program. You can make an icon for it on your taskbar to avoid bash. "killall" is fun too, as is "pkill".
~.~
I'm a peripheral visionary.
> Limiting yourself to open source limits your choices.
Depends on which choices you talk about. Insisting on free software for the *initial choice* is the same as insisting on not limiting your *future choice* of vendors for service, maintenance and improvements.
To be honest, this particular freedom is probaby more important for business applications, than for a home user applications such as Picasso.
I installed Picasa and tried it out, but didn't notice any function that I couldn't do better and easier already with an appropriate tool. It's now uninstalled.
Actually, as a google *user*, I found that viewing the documentation made available to us helps:
from here
Q: What's different between the Windows version of Picasa and Picasa for Linux?
There are a few differences:
* Picasa for Linux is currently available only in the U.S., with an English interface.
* Google's Hello photo-messaging application is Windows only, so it's not currently integrated with Picasa for Linux.
* CD burning isn't supported in Picasa for Linux. The button will be grayed out in the interface. The CD-ROM-burning library used by Picasa uses a Windows driver that's not easy to support on Wine.
* Similarly, the backup feature is not supported.
* There's currently no Export to TiVo® feature.
Sure, you might have heard server mismatch, but from the looks of the documentation it seems likely it was working to specification.
Also, why point us to a google auto translated page of someones blog post saying that google are allowing international downloads, and not just tell us you believe its working now (which it is, genuine thanks for informing me)
liqbase
I very much hope prison walls *do* restrict the freedom of people within.
Picasa for Linux is currently available only in the U.S., with an English interface.
Oops, that's wrong, will be fixed.
Regards,
Daniel
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?