Google and CodeWeavers are working together to bring Google's popular Windows Picasa photo editing and sharing program to Linux. The program is now in a limited beta test. If this program is successful, other Google applications will be following it to the Linux desktop, sources say. The Linux Picasa implementation includes the full feature set of the Windows Picasa 2.x software. It is not, strictly speaking, a port of Picasa to Linux. Instead, Linux Picasa combines Windows Picasa code and Wine technology to run Windows Picasa on Linux. This, however, will be transparent to Linux users, when they download, install, and run the free program on their systems.
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Member since:2005-11-14
The way I see this is that Google plans to start publishing it's apps for Linux as well, and thus we have some more apps at our disposal. That can't be a bad thing, right?
Wrong !
It won't work on anything but x86, perhaps 64 bits, but I'm not sure. It will be a bitch to install, it won't be integrated, it won't have tenth of the features that Linux DE provide. Nero was native and was still lacking (and is now already useless on latest kernels), this will be worse from the start.
The whining is because, as someone I forgot the name talked about, if you port to Linux, ultimately it's worse to do such a half assed hack than to do nothing. To add to the injury, there are already better native programs for both KDE and Gnome.
I still consider it a good thing when a big company lays it's eyes on Linux and atleast tries to port their apps
Problem is, this is not a port, this is a hack.
Member since:2006-02-15
Yeah, I forgot to say that it probably won't work on 64-bit distros, atleast not without quite a hassle. But why would it be a bitch to install? If it is done in any kind of a smart manner, all you need to do is uncompress the package and run Picasa. Oh, and why would it provide any features that a normal Linux DE provides? You do know that Picasa isn't a DE, it's just an app...? And since it's in the core the same win32 app, it will have all the same features as it's windows counterpart. I don't know what Picasa actually does, but I'm sure there are better native alternatives already, but hey, if someone wants to use Picasa, why not? I still don't see any reason why a "half-assed hack" is no better than nothing at all.
Just by the way, I'm running 2.6.15 and Nero works just fine. Never experienced a single hitch. And this on all 3 machines of mine.
-WereCatf
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Member since:
2006-02-15
I don't really understand all this whining. The way I see this is that Google plans to start publishing it's apps for Linux as well, and thus we have some more apps at our disposal. That can't be a bad thing, right? Sure, Picasa will still be just native win32 code and it's just wrapped by winelib, it won't fit too well in with either KDE or Gnome desktops and it _might_ have some stability issues, but hey, if you don't like it, you're not forced to use it either. I'm sure there will anyways be alot of happy users too. I don't why Google decided to use winelib wrapper, but surely they have their reasons.
I personally don't even know what Picasa is or does, and I probably won't ever use it because of it still being a win32 app in the core (look'n'feel, you know), but I still consider it a good thing when a big company lays it's eyes on Linux and atleast tries to port their apps.
-WereCatf