As a seasoned Picasa user I must say this is good to see, that if I ever decide to go with Linux, I can still use one of my favorite photo utilities.

If you haven't used Picasa yet, you should give it a try, it's quite good.

As a result of this work, over 200 patches have been submitted to Wine by Google, further improving it.

Thanks, Google. :-)

Pika, Pika-- how 'bout Pikachu sponsorship?

It's great! BTW it's not running under Wine in the normal sense of (not-)emulation but only written using existing Windows .DLLs, hence the special Wine installation - in fact it IS a linux-native application, and it's fast, and it is already my default photo-sorting app after 2 days use - and I am a pro phographer with >10000 jpegs.

Thanks, Google!!

I would be more excited if I used Linux...Or even Picasa...But I'm glad to see a company like Google investing in other platforms.

Picasa was working via wine a long time ago. I have had it on my Xandros desktop via crossover office with all my Canon G6 pictures imported by it.
Since it is not native, it looks more like an old Windows app.

I have been using Skype on Linux since they came out and have made so many calls and conference calls without a drop in quality.
But however I would like to see some of the Skype on Windows features in Linux version.

-GGR

Google is sure putting their chess pieces in the right places.

Soon they will have checkmate.

Very good, a bit pity that it is not a native Linux app, but everything is emulated. Anyway it runs very well, so mustn't grumble.

I am waiting for Google Talk for Linux. Skype for Linux is hopeless and I need a voice communicator which is: a) popular, and b) works well both with Linux and Windows.

Very good, a bit pity that it is not a native Linux app, but everything is emulated. Anyway it runs very well, so mustn't grumble.

You could on principle. Becasue it's not native, it's very likely much slower and more resource intensive than it would be otherwise.

*shrug*

Haven't used it, so I'll withold judgement of the program itself, but the way they went about it is crap.

ad 1. Actually it is not slower at all, at least with my Suse 10.1. You must know that the thing which brakes Picasa for Windows is IE which is required for it. Unfortunately, it uses the Ms components due to legacy issues (Google bought Picasa around two years ago). The native design would be better and Google already announced that Picasa v.3 will not use any of the components. So v. 2.2 is an improvised arrangement and Google spoke it loud and clear.

ad 2. maybe, but do you know any program which is equally popular, pretty easy in use, not crappy designed like Skype for Linux (v. 1.2 - lol), multiplatform and making voice chatting possible? I cannot imagine Yahoo! IM because of the recent deal with Microsoft. So?

Not slower than what? You're trying to tell me that it would be just as fast as it is now if it were written from scratch natively for Linux?

Somehow I doubt that very much.

I don't doubt it works, or that it is definately useable. I just think they should have gone native with V2 instead of waiting for v3. It's a half-assed solution.

Well, since WINE is not an emulator, it's entirely possible.

My experience with WINE over the years leads me to believe that it probably does run as fast, though it's probably not as stable as it would be on Windows native.

Exactly. The Linux version runs as quick as Picasa for Windows (my config: Win XP Pro & Suse 10.1, Athlon 64 3800@2798 MHz, a gigabyte of RAM, two Hitachi 7K400 HDDs).

Picasa is not an exception, there are some other app which behave the same. I cannot tell anything about the stability of the program because I have tested it for a day only. Moreover, it is a beta, so bugs are possible.

Some interesting details were published here:

http://trends.newsforge....pl?sid=06/05/25/2343255

Picasa is a photo organizing and editing tool from Google that does most of what most people need to do with their digital pictures. Now Picasa, previously a Windows-only program, has binaries available for most popular GNU/Linux distributions. The Linux version of Picasa is still a beta release, but it's ready to handle photo storage, organizing, and light photo editing on your Linux computer.

Even if you don't want to use Picasa, Google's creation of the Linux version may help make your Linux computer more versatile. The Picasa Linux port is being made with Wine, and in the process more than 100 patches are being contributed back to the community.

Google spokesperson Chris DiBona says, "At the end of this, a lot of people will be able to use Wine who weren't able to before."

Google hired CodeWeavers to do much of the work needed to get Picasa to run on Linux with Wine, but long-time Wine community contributor Dan Kegel also helped; he works for Google.

According to DiBona, the Picasa Linux beta release currently lacks these features:
CD Burning
TiVo Export
Support for languages other than English
Hello™ instant picture chat

Picasa does not work with SELinux due to problems with camera recognition caused by SELinux's security features.

DiBona cautions all downloaders: "This is a beta version. We're expecting bugs." But he also says that, except for the features specifically noted as not working, this is a fully-functional program, ready for everyday use.

And again, even if you have no interest in Picasa, it looks like even those of us who haven't tried Wine in a while should start keeping an eye on it again. The Google-contributed code may mean a whole new level of functionality for anyone who must use "Windows-only" software but wants to run nothing but GNU/Linux on his or her PC.

Picasa is available here for these GNU/Linux distributions:
Debian Sid and Etch
Fedora Core 4 and 5
Mandriva 2005 and 2006
Red Hat (current versions)
Linspire 5.0
SUSE 9.3 and 10
Ubuntu 5.x

"According to DiBona, the Picasa Linux beta release currently lacks these features:
/../
Support for languages other than English"

Funny, Linux Picasa IS in my native language in my computer. It was installed via CrossOver first, I uninstalled it and installed Linux native version. It remembered my old settings.

One word: Awesome!!!

A nice move google :) Picasa is a very nice and useful program!

It's extremely stable, in my opinion, but very slow on my laptop.