OSNews

No,just two platform: PPC and x86.

An operating system + tools is also a platform. The things you mentioned are more generally called 'architectures'.

What did you do to get it running. I am using opensuse 10.1 and get an error message about needing to run an X11 server ...

I haven't tried it with SUSE 10.1 *yet*. I'm currently running ubuntu dapper, with the latest quinn debs and cvs's of XGL from www.compiz.net. The updated XGL makes a huge performance difference on my nvidia card, for anyone who's interested in trying it.

Same here: Google Earth works great in Xgl with my lowly FX5200 card. However, as soon as I load a model of the Taj Mahal... 1 FPS.

no, wait. I just tried it again. Make that 0.5 FPS!

I have no problems with not much hardware, HOWEVER, it it much better with an xserver that has hardware 3d acceleration. Try that out and see how the performance is.

TusharG,

Re: "After Picasa was launched on Linux now google has Google earth. I'm using picasa on linux and it rocks... same way google earth is goona do."

The more applications ported the Linux the better it is for users.

Re: "I guess goolge is giving hint to MS!!! It also shows googles interest in protecting all platform users and making sure its presence on all/every platform!"

Google recently has been increasing their cross platform support to include more applications on Linux. What makes this different than Microsoft who has a tendency to focus only on Windows and Apple's focus on applications for OSX. Where as with Google the company is more OS neutral.

Re: "Google ROCKS!

Agree, Google rocks Especially when one looks at their email solution that offers more free online secure storage of data than Hotmail or even Yahoo. There service works with push email solutions such as Chattermail (used for the Palm Treo) unlike Hotmail. Then there's their other useful services such as Google Calendar, translation utility, etc.

I agree on all fronts except Google is still making applications for Windows products. If they wanted to show Microsoft anything wouldnt they have to stop making products for Microsoft products? I guess I dont understand what hint you are talking about.

The hint is MS is busy only in MS related stuff... but next level market is supporting all platforms.

Adobe will port their applications to Linux when they can make money on it.
That simple

On the left there's a list of options. One of the first is 3D buildings (if I remember correctly). That will turn them on. Assuming we're talking about the same things?

Thanks dmdavis, I remember that option from the previous version but haven't been able to find it on the latest edition. I am not currently working on my Mac but will definitely give it another look tonight.

Still no show. I redownloaded the app from the servers. Here's my screenshot http://static.flickr.com/49/166627826_c2a0bb8e15_b.jpg

Anybody got an idea of what's gone wrong?

It works on my nvidia card in Ubuntu with no problems. Are you sure you're using the hardware accellerated drivers?

My city is a big blur...

sudo sh GoogleEarthLinux.bin

would install it as a super user, so it would not be in YOUR menus.

what you should have done was;
sudo nautilus, clicked the filename, clicked properties, accessability, and gave execution privilages to the group.....
then when you double click the file as a normal user, it will install into your home folder, and it will put itself in the menus.

Just for your information and to help you out, it is not a "dos" box, it is the shell terminal. Granted they might look the same to someone who is new but trust me if you learn about using the shell, you will find yourself enriching your computing experience.

http://www.arachnoid.com/linux/shell_programming.html is a good page to start with. This is with the premise that you are interested in learning how to control your computer better to make your computing experience more powerful and efficient.

Never mind that your comment is off-topic, but...

The user would just have to follow the instructions given on the web page where he downloaded the installer in the first place!

(I know, what a concept...)

Please go troll somewhere else.

Google Earth installs desktop files (menu entries) to the standard directories, and they seem to show up in both Gnome and KDE just fine for me. I also was able to install it by selecting to enable Execute permissions and simpily double clicking on the file. It launched a GUI installer. I think you are confused about which operating system you are using.

It is using QT, they're just statically linking to the QT library which they've included in the binary you downloaded. It takes more space than dynamically linking to an installed QT library but ensure compatibility with all linux distros.

I see...it sure doesn't look very "qt-ish".

What? It's using the default QT widget style.

Try and think of education and geography. From a teachers perspective this is gold. Most school kids have no idea where Bangkok is. With google earth they can truly surf around the globe and find places. Compare to when you had to search in an atlas. I'd like to see an add-on that showed your IP connections on the globe while you surf. They can always add newer and cooler features to this.

Which wheel did they reinvent ?
About the only (non toy) likes of google earth is NASA World Winds, and they appeard about the same time.

Use ? Well it's FUN isn't it. Fun things have their use.
Other than that, it's useful for education, real estate prospects. They have enterprise editions which will make it useful for just about any users of GIS - they can import their own information on top of Google Earth (think metrolgists for one - sure they can find use of a mapping tool ?). Useful for route planning.
Have you ever seen a globus ? - they can be useful. So can Google Earth for the very same reasons.

And let's not forget government spying

I disagree, I find Google Earth to be a fascinating product. It is loads of fun to explore the Earth with it - and since it can do Local Search and Intinerary Planning as well, it can also serve a practical purpose.

Now, if they can only get Sketchup working on Linux, I'll be in heaven...

You are wrong, Google Earth is created using the Qt(cross platform) toolkit. Picasa wasn't.
Much less to port when the GUI code, if done right, doesn't need porting.

Alternatively, just don't use sudo at all, run the installer as ordinary user, and install it into your home directory.

I don't know if it's sad, ironic or both. But I've noticed on a number of sites where this new release is mentioned, there are a frightening number of users who defaulted to using sudo for the install for no apparent reason other than thinking they needed to.

When malicious software makes it's first appearance in the desktop linux world, I suspect *buntu systems will unfortunately be ground zero. Sudo this, sudo that, never ask why. Something needs to be done about that, but even in the bigger picture I've always felt generic package management at the desktop level needs less reliance on admin privileges for user apps, it simply encourages bad behavior. I think the problem is magnified with Ubuntu because sudo seems to be far more abused/misused than su does in other distros, but that's just my opinion.

Me? I'm not a google conspiracist, but I'm certainly not going to give a google application free-reign access over my system. If the install had required access to anything outside my home directory, I don't think I would have bothered without a very good reason why.

For the most part, I'd agree. Though there is a difference using sudo to install a piece of software and running that piece of software as root. For multi-user systems, you do not want to have every user installing the same app, that would waste a lot of hard drive space. Instead you'd have the administrator install it so that all users can use it.

Of course if you're the only one using the system, then by all means install it as the normal user.