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."

Comments

not free

[Anneco]

Nice that you can use Picasa with Wine under Linux. But it is no free software (GPL, BSD or open source).

No source code.

Re:not free

[MojoRilla]

Typical Linux whine.

No where in this annoucement do they say that they are releasing Picasa as open source software. They do allow use of it free of charge.

Software developers are really in a bind with Linux. If you don't create software for Linux, Linux people whine that you are not supporting them.

Create software for Linux, Linux people whine that its not open source.

Picasa is an awesome photo management application. Be glad Google ported it to Linux, and that you can use it for free. If you demand that all software you use is open source, look elsewhere. Note that there are many useful applications that developers, for many reasons, don't want to release as open source. Limiting yourself to open source limits your choices.

Re:not free

[Bromskloss]

Limiting yourself to open source limits your choices.

Many of us care about the freedom that comes with free software. Compare with free speech and free press. In the long run, it's really non-free software that limits ones choices. Compare again with free speech in this example:

Someone offers you to come live in their country, but only under the condition that you keep very quiet about your own opinions and never criticize the government. Initially, it may seem that standing firm in your belief in free speech would limit your choices -- you would have to turn down the offer to live in that country. It is not hard to see, however, how abandoning free speech is what really would deprive you of your freedom. Who knows, after some time you might not even be able to leave their country, would you wish to do so.

It's NOT "fairly standard", it's for LINUX!

[ThinkingInBinary]

Why announce a fairly standard application on /.?

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.

Re:"Google" software for Linux

[FictionPimp]

Wine is not emulation. Its an API. Its no different then any other linux app. No different then chosing QT over GTK or any thing else. Whats wrong with coding to a cross platform library?

Re:Recommendation

[barzok]

If this runs using wine internally, then couldn't we have run Picasa using Wine before anyway?

Apparently not, since it took 225 WINE patches to get things working.

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.

Re:Why US only?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Why is the Linux version restricted to the US only?

US Export restrictions.

Land of the Free, except when you try to get stuff out.

Everyone has missed the "real" announcement here

[pla]

I don't get it. Why announce a fairly standard application on /.?

This announcement has very little to do with Picassa.

Read between the lines (or even one particular line, explicitly):

"We hope our patches to Wine will help make it easier for everyone to run Windows apps on Linux and other Unix-like systems."

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.

Where's the love? Give Google a break :/

[Kiaradune]

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!