I wonder what the more seasoned Linux people (I've only been at this a few months so my opinion still isn't very significant) think of Picasa for Linux, and Google's Summer of Code. Personally, I think they are pretty cool. But I just wonder what Google is getting out of it in the end, especially with the summer of code thing.

I hadn't ever used picasa, until they released a linux version. When I saw that they had, I figured I needed to try it out. I really like Picasa, even more so than the windows photo management. I had been looking for something to manage my pictures w/ under linux, and Picasa fills that need.

I really think the Summer of Code thing is a good idea. I like the idea of a company sponsoring development of opensource projects, and the fact that their kind of training people while doing it. I only wish I was old enough.

As for what google get's out of it, Summer of Code seems to be a sort of scouting project. Looking for talented developers. Picasa, I'm not sure what google get's out of it directly, except maybe more people using their project.

I looked at it on a windows box and still liked KphotoAlbum better.

Linux Picasa is garbage compared to other projects that have been around longer. Remember, Google didn't actually spend the time to write an actual Linux version, they just bundled it with WINE. That's why it's a 25 megabyte file to download. You're really still running the Windows Picasa.

Let Google actually make a Linux version and not a windows version that runs in wine and I might install it.

Personally, I barely care that Google "ported" (term used loosely) Picasa to Linux. I suspect that for those interested in using Linux primarily because they like the functionality, it's nice to have another project under the Linux environment. But I myself am just as interested in the idea of open-source software as I am in functionality, and furthermore I think one follows the other. Also, being no longer a Linux user but a BSD user (switched about a year ago) it's of little practical use to me. Because of my belief in open-source, I don't run binary-only stuff unless it's absolutely necessary; right now the only examples I use are Opera (for testing how XHTML renders on multiple clients) and Sun's Java (Diablo version, for schoolwork). I don't really have a reason for running Linux binary emulation + a bunch of Wine stuff (linked in, but still extra overhead) + Picasa just to organize my photos; plus my digital camera w/ SD card acts as a USB mass-storage device anyway, so I easily enough just have to mount it and copy the images over to my hard-disk. I don't even know if Picasa would work in my environment, and if it didn't then it would just be wasted time and effort.

I also personally think (given my beliefs on the importance of open-source and the use of free operating systems on principle moreso than functionality) that giving Google a lot of credit or hype for this so-called "port" is over-reacting. This is not something, in my opinion, that is actually going to help the community where it counts. I don't think Linux (or BSD or what-have-you) needs to be popular to be powerful or innovative; these systems have managed to become the best in the world even though as many as 90% of the machines out there (including desktops and embedded systems) run Windows. What really helps the community is donating time and effort to open-source code, rather than closed-source functionality. And I realize that Google made large contributions to the Wine project, which is great, but for the sake of argument, look at it this way: Wine lets you run closed-source Windows applications. Is that really helping open-source developers write better code? No, not really. Again, from my perspective (as opposed to someone using Linux primarily for stability, etc. and not necessarily because it's open) that time would have been better spent truly porting Picasa to Unix and then placing it under an open-source license. That would be something all programmers could potentially benefit from, ultimately potentially creating a better environment and experience for all users.

There's a theory that Google may just be using the WINE version as of right now as a sort of transition platform while they are still writing an actual Linux edition.