You are not logged in.

#1 2006-05-26 12:54:06

murkus
Member
From: Europe/Helsinki
Registered: 2004-03-19
Posts: 254

Google releases Picasa for Linux!

I was browsing Slashdot and just noticed this great news!

Unfortunately you have to use US located proxy to reach the page at this moment: http://picasa.google.com.nyud.net:8080/linux/

Offline

#2 2006-05-26 13:08:40

pressh
Developer/TU
From: Netherlands
Registered: 2005-08-14
Posts: 1,719

Re: Google releases Picasa for Linux!

Offline

#3 2006-05-26 13:09:22

tomk
Forum Fellow
From: Ireland
Registered: 2004-07-21
Posts: 9,839

Re: Google releases Picasa for Linux!

Hmm... you can get a rpm, a deb, or a bin. And it includes Wine and Mozilla - is it really "Picasa for Linux", or more like "Picasa for Windoze, bundled with Wine - and Mozilla, for good measure"? tongue

Offline

#4 2006-05-26 13:55:43

codemac
Member
From: Cliche Tech Place
Registered: 2005-05-13
Posts: 794
Website

Re: Google releases Picasa for Linux!

Yes, that is right TomK.  Google has been working with Wine to get all of their apps working in linux.  Rumor mills say google talk is soon coming as well.  What is unique about this is that google is writing portable enough code that you could all ready run picasa with wine reall well, and google talk is a little harder and not as useful, but good none the less.

Offline

#5 2006-05-26 14:10:21

tomk
Forum Fellow
From: Ireland
Registered: 2004-07-21
Posts: 9,839

Re: Google releases Picasa for Linux!

Fair enough, and I'm sure whoever wants to use it will be very happy. I'm not a developer, so I could be way off-base here, but wouldn't it be better to rewrite the apps so that they run natively on Linux, rather than using Wine?

Offline

#6 2006-05-26 14:20:32

pressh
Developer/TU
From: Netherlands
Registered: 2005-08-14
Posts: 1,719

Re: Google releases Picasa for Linux!

tomk wrote:

Fair enough, and I'm sure whoever wants to use it will be very happy. I'm not a developer, so I could be way off-base here, but wouldn't it be better to rewrite the apps so that they run natively on Linux, rather than using Wine?

Wine is not an emulator, it's just an implementation of the windows api. It's not that much different from any other linux api.
As far as desktop integration considered, it would be nice to have it in either gtk or qt.

Offline

#7 2006-05-26 14:22:35

iphitus
Forum Fellow
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2004-10-09
Posts: 4,927

Re: Google releases Picasa for Linux!

tomk wrote:

Fair enough, and I'm sure whoever wants to use it will be very happy. I'm not a developer, so I could be way off-base here, but wouldn't it be better to rewrite the apps so that they run natively on Linux, rather than using Wine?

this is where a lot of people have been quite confused. On linux, we have a range of gui toolkits, GTK, QT, TK..... and winelib.

winelib is used by wine, and it's a NATIVE implementation of the win32api.

Thus, with relevant modifications to work with a unix style setup, win32api applications can be compiled to native, linux binaries. no translation or work by traditional wine is done in running these programs.

This is a native port, it just looks like crap because winelib looks terrible, it may also be slow because winelib isnt exactly the most efficient thing out there either.

You can see though, how it is easier for Google to port their app using winelib rather than to GTK/QT. They dont need to adjust anywhere as near as much code. Who knows, now that they've ported some, they may use that as a stepping stone, and port the gui across to GTK/QT too.

James

Offline

#8 2006-05-26 14:46:54

tomk
Forum Fellow
From: Ireland
Registered: 2004-07-21
Posts: 9,839

Re: Google releases Picasa for Linux!

Thanks iph - that's a very useful explanation.

iphitus wrote:

This is a native port, it just looks like crap because winelib looks terrible, it may also be slow because winelib isnt exactly the most efficient thing out there either.

Still doesn't sound ideal, does it?

Offline

#9 2006-05-26 14:53:25

lessthanjake
Member
From: Norway
Registered: 2005-11-09
Posts: 319
Website

Re: Google releases Picasa for Linux!

tomk wrote:

Still doesn't sound ideal, does it?

IMHO; far from ideal, none existing desktop integration, poor performance and so on.

Offline

#10 2006-05-26 15:06:33

iphitus
Forum Fellow
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2004-10-09
Posts: 4,927

Re: Google releases Picasa for Linux!

tomk wrote:

Thanks iph - that's a very useful explanation.

iphitus wrote:

This is a native port, it just looks like crap because winelib looks terrible, it may also be slow because winelib isnt exactly the most efficient thing out there either.

Still doesn't sound ideal, does it?

Not ideal, but its a start. something > nothing

Offline

#11 2006-05-26 15:17:17

lessthanjake
Member
From: Norway
Registered: 2005-11-09
Posts: 319
Website

Re: Google releases Picasa for Linux!

iphitus wrote:

Not ideal, but its a start. something > nothing

Not always, where would k3b be today if crappy(but alt least working)-nero had been available from the start. Or maybe someone had reversengineered the skype-protocol and we could hve a nice working alsa/gtk-skype, if skype did not ship their barely working klient.

Offline

#12 2006-05-27 00:05:33

iphitus
Forum Fellow
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2004-10-09
Posts: 4,927

Re: Google releases Picasa for Linux!

lessthanjake wrote:
iphitus wrote:

Not ideal, but its a start. something > nothing

Not always, where would k3b be today if crappy(but alt least working)-nero had been available from the start. Or maybe someone had reversengineered the skype-protocol and we could hve a nice working alsa/gtk-skype, if skype did not ship their barely working klient.

K3B would still be here, because nero costs money. As for skype, I never thought their client was that bad...

lowlight: I didnt realise... looks like i'm wrong then.

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB