Upgrade to Picasa 3.8 on Ubuntu

If you're still stick to old 3.0 version of Picasa on your Ubuntu system (because you prefer it over Ubuntu's own programs, as I do), here are some instructions about how to upgrade Picasa to newer versions which have for example Face Recognition.

Install instructions

These instructions have been tested on Ubuntu Natty, and for Picasa 3.8, in case there's a newer version released you'll have to change it's location (search below for HERE).

## Add Google's testing repository for Picasa
sudo echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ testing non-free #Google Picasa" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-unstable.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 7FAC5991
sudo apt-get update
## Install Picasa 3.0
sudo apt-get install picasa

## Download Picasa 3.8 installer
# If there's a newer version you might to have to change it's name and location HERE
cd /tmp && wget http://dl.google.com/picasa/picasa38-setup.exe

## Install it (will not override your current Linux Picasa 3.0)
# Use default settings
wine /tmp/picasa38-setup.exe

## Copy over Picasa 3.8 files to your Linux Picasa 3.0 installation with backup
sudo cp -r /opt/google/picasa/3.0/wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Google/Picasa3{,_3.0}
sudo cp -r ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Google/Picasa3/* /opt/google/picasa/3.0/wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Google/Picasa3/

## Uninstall the previous installed Picasa 3.8 (it's not needed any longer)
wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Google/Picasa3/Uninstall.exe

Now you can run Picasa as usual from Applications --> Graphics --> Picasa --> Picasa
In case that something went wrong, you can find a backup of Picasa 3.0 in /opt/google/picasa/3.0/wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Google/Picasa3_3.0

Picasa Photo Organizer

Picasa is a very powerful image manager.
It's main features are:

		Organize Manage your photos in one place, and find photos you forgot you had
		Edit Eliminate scratches & blemishes, fix red-eye, crop and more
		Create Turn photos into collages, slideshows and more
		Share Upload seamlessly to Picasa Web Albums to share with friends, family & the world

Install instructions for Linux

Just copy and paste the following instructions into a Terminal (you'll have to do it twice, as the first sudo -v stops the rest of instructions):

sudo -v
# Add Google's public package signing key on your system to prevent warnings or errors
wget -q https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub -O- | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free #Google repository" > /tmp/GooglePicasa.list
# If you don't want to install the beta testing version, don't paste the following line:
echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ testing non-free #Google testing repository" >> /tmp/GooglePicasa.list
sudo mv /tmp/GooglePicasa.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install picasa

Media Player Classic

Media Player Classic (MPC) is a compact media player for Windows. The application mimics the look and feel of the old, light-weight Windows Media Player 6.4 but integrates most options and features found in modern media players.

In conjunction with the Combined Community Codec Pack (it's included here), it should be your first choice for playing any multimedia file on Windows and not that overblown WMPlayer included in that OS.

Disk Usage Analyser

You want to find out where all the space on your hard disk was going?

Well you could have a look from a Linux command line with du -H, but that's not very user friendly.

Much better to use a graphical tool for that purpose.

Ubuntu (Linux)

Baobab

Baobab has been included as a component of gnome-utils with the name 'Disk Usage Analyzer' and can be found as such in Ubuntu's Applications->Accessories menu.

Baobab can easily scan either the whole file system tree, or a specific user-requested directory branch (local or remote).

Filelight

Baobab's radial map view comes from Filelight which was developed mainly for the KDE environment. It's radial map is still more graphical than Baobad's one, so you may like to check it out instead. It can be installed directly from the Applications menu.

Windows

Scanner

Scanner uses a unique concentric pie chart (very similar to Filelight) to display the usage of your hard disk or other media. The chart shows all major files and folders from all directory levels at once.

Photo Organizer

Picasa is a free software download from Google that helps you:

• Locate and organise all the photos on your computer.
• Edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks.
• Share your photos with others through email, prints and on the web: it’s fast, easy and free.

It was developed first for Windows, but nowadays it is supported for Linux using the Wine emulation framework.

Install instructions for Ubuntu

sudo -s
wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | apt-key add -
echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free # Google software repository" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list
aptitude update
aptitude -y install picasa

More instructions on installing Picasa on Linux systems.

MediBuntu

Medibuntu (Multimedia, Entertainment & Distractions In Ubuntu) is a repository of packages that cannot be included into the Ubuntu distribution for legal reasons.

Its main focus is on multimedia support, something similar to the Combined Community Codec Pack for Windows.

The most interesting feature is a full version of ffmpeg (including MP3 and x264 encoding).

More help on adding the repository and installing individual packages can be found in the Ubuntu online help.

View Office documents

There's OpenOffice so why should I bother to install the Microsoft Office Suite?

1. Some MS Office documents aren't displayed right with OpenOffice. There are few ones, but it still happens.
2. Documents with Macros often aren't handled.
3. You just don't want to start OpenOffice to see a PowerPoint that a friend has send you via email, because it isn't immediately.

Okay, these are some reasons, but I still don't want to install this huge Suite or I'm using Linux so this is no choice.

You don't have to.
There exist free tools from Microsoft which can display Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents, without having installed the Office Suite.
Moreover, they work perfectly with Wine on Linux.

They are simple Viewers, you can't edit the documents, but printing works as well.

You can find them here:

• Word Viewer
• Powerpoint Viewer (on Ubuntu can be installed from the application menu)
  
• Excel Viewer