About Picasa for Linux

Free download

Total size: 24MB. Includes Picasa software (9MB), Wine (12MB) and Gecko engine (3MB).

What is Picasa for Linux?

Google’s photo organizer, Picasa, makes it easy to find, edit, and share digital photos on your computer. Now you can harness the power of Picasa on your Linux machine. Our Linux release includes the same functionality as Picasa for Windows with the exception of just a few items. (Please see our FAQ for more details.)

So, how does it work? Picasa for Linux runs the current Windows version of Picasa using a carefully tested version of Wine, an open-source implementation of the Windows application-programming interface (API). Wine runs on top of the X Window System and Linux or Unix. But it’s not a Windows emulator; instead, it provides a Windows API middleware layer that enables Windows programs to run on Linux without the slowing effects of OS emulation or a virtual machine.

To allow Picasa to run well on Linux, Google made a few improvements to Wine. Some of the changes were Picasa-specific and simply added a bit of polish. (They probably won’t be of use to other applications, and may not be needed in future versions of Picasa, either.) None of the changes were proprietary to Google, and all have been contributed to the Wine project. The source for all the changes is available at http://code.google.com/wine.html.

Quick Facts:

System requirements:

• Should work on any Linux system with Intel 386-compatible processor, glibc 2.3 or greater, and a working X11 display system. Optional: XVideo extension on your display driver (to view things full screen); having a newer kernel (>= 2.6.13) to get notified of file changes; having a new kernel and HAL to automatically detect new media insertion. Note: There are other variations -- for example, setting screensavers and desktop backgrounds only works on certain Linux windowing environments.
• Desktop Integration features require a current version of Gnome or KDE.
• Camera detection and integration requires kernel >= 2.6.13, hal >= 0.56, libgphoto2, and gnome-volume-manager or equivalent.
• Downloading from Picasa Web Albums requires a Mozilla-based browser like Firefox.

Help:

• Visit the FAQs for specific questions about using Picasa for Linux.
• Also, check out the Picasa for Linux User Group. This group isn’t moderated by Google, but it’s a great place to ask questions of other Picasa users (and to share your own expertise).
• For more information on Picasa and its features, visit http://picasa.google.com.
• Please send us your feedback on Picasa for Linux. While we aren't able to answer every email received, we do read every one and appreciate you taking the time to write. Send comments to: labs+picasa@google.com