Google's Picasa for Linux catches up to Windows

Google has brought to Linux the beta version of its new Picasa 3 software for image editing, cataloging, and uploading.

The new release catches the open-source operating system up with Windows, which got the Picasa 3 beta one month earlier. There's still no word about a Mac OS X version, although Mike Horowitz, Google's Picasa product manager, told me earlier that "Macs are important to us...We're always looking for new ways of making sure our users are happy, so it's something we're looking at."

A collage mode in Picasa lets people create poster-size collections, sizing and placing each snapshot. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: Google)

The new version adds a retouching tool, automatic synchronization of photos on the PC with those stored at Google's Picasa Web site, and a collage mode that lets people combine numerous snapshots into a poster-size collection, Google programmer Lei Zhang said in a blog post announcing the new version. The new version also is faster, he added.

However, it does lack the Windows version's movie maker feature that can turn photos into a slideshow with a soundtrack that can then be uploaded to YouTube.

The software runs using Wine and an open-source software layer that translates a program's Windows instructions into commands for Linux instead. Google has contributed about 850 patches to the Wine project so far this year, Google said. Better video support in Wine is still a work in progress, though, which is why the movie maker feature is disabled.

[ikramerica--2008]

It would be nice if there were a true cross platform app like Picasa for OSX, but with so many people happy enough with the iPhoto application, I doubt it's a high priority for Google.

[kelmon]

Agreed. I don't know what you can expect to find installed with a new PC but presumably it varies from manufacturer so a good consumer solution like Picasa makes sense for Windows and Linux. On the Mac everyone has iPhoto. It is possible, however, that Mac users would be interested in Picasa if they did not have the latest version of iPhoto and didn't want to pay the upgrade fee.

[Pishkado]

I cannot imagine that there are more potential Picasa users on Linux than there are on Mac OS. We're a multi-platform Windows-Mac family, use Picasa on the Windows side, and would love to standardize on it even though iPhoto does what we need on our Macs. Can we possibly be the only ones? Somehow, I doubt it.

[ethana2]

My whole family uses Ubuntu, and yours can too.

Now you know how it feels.

[The_Decider]

If Google had any foresight it would have been cross platform with little hassle. It is not hard to do in most cases.

At least Wine is getting bulked up which helps put another nail in the MS coffin.

[wolivere]

Been hearing that since 1997, 10 years later where are we?

[RompStar_420]

This is great, someone gave me a free G4 PowerMac, it has a 400Mhz processor in it, I could install 10.4 and it would be a little sluggish, but Ubuntu 8.04 for the PPC processor, is pretty speedy.

There are also aftermarket upgrades, and the G4 PowerMacs can be heavily moded, up to 2GH processor, great stuff Linux is.

[sgmorr1]

RompStar,

Is Ubuntu 8.04 available for PPC? I'm having trouble locating it. Also, is this a live CD? Thanks.

[storm14k]

It looks to me like Google needs to get its desktop development shop in order if they plan to be cross platform. They release stuff and then leave you hanging on the other platforms. Maybe they should take some notes from Mozilla or start developing with Java.

[chiefmanyrabbitguteat]

I think that the reason that Macs don't seem to have a high priority for this particular application has to do more with the maturity of WINE on Linux systems. It would probably work with DarWINE on the Mac, but I don't know if they've tested it enough.

[JimMcDish]

Wow, I never thought I would see the day where Linux caught up with Windows! that little penguin dude ROCKS

www.privacy-center.ru.tc

[gatuus]

Ahhhhhhhh =( ....
with all its money, all its power and all its progammers (guido, etc cooff cofff)
google still can't make transparent multiplatform programs... ahhhh =(

I stay with KDE 4, thank you anyway!

[sgmorr1]

I'm a Mac user, Tiger on a G4 iMac, and I'd sure like to have Picasa available. As was said earlier, with all Google's developmental dollars, how could this possibly be so difficult?

[eclsnowman]

The reason it is so difficult is because Google purchased a company with an amazing product and rolled it into thier lineup of apps. Most of the developement dollars to date have been spend on tight integration with googles other goals (google images). So to go back and rewrite from the start a program that already ran smoothly, looked slick as heck, and worked on the highest demografic target (windows) is rediculous. There was no point in reinventing the wheel. And there is already an opensource replacement for linux. F-spot is a great product and for my 130 gigs of pictures I thing the backend and thumbnail database works faster anyway. Why don't we push for cross platform F-spot rather than rewritten Picasa.

[cassio1]

It looks like codeweavers almost supports it, according to a tester. go to http://www.codeweavers.com for a free trial.