Picasa on FreeBSD

Google produce Picasa for Windows, and also provide a version that runs on Linux.

The Linux version is the same code that runs on Windows, running using a technology called Wine, that allows Windows programs to be run unchanged on other x86 based operating systems.

It's not all that surprising therefore that some people have tried to run Picasa on other operating systems, for which Wine is also available.

How to install Picasa to FreeBSD is an entry on a Japanese blog that gives instructions how to achieve this for FreeBSD.  Although the title is in English, the instructions themselves are in Japanese.  I think the main point that is made is that (despite the similarities between FreeBSD and Linux) the installation uses the Windows download of the program, not the Linux version.

The command to do this is

% wine /tmp/picasa2-current.exe

Google can be used to give an automatic translation of the page - which gives a page that's still rather difficult to follow.  I think the instructions also list a number of problems that were found with this method - when installed the slideshow does not work, and there is mention of problems with sending emails.  I've not got FreeBSD to try this out on, so can't check out these problems myself.

It's been reported that the Windows version of Picasa also mostly works when run using Crossover Office for Mac (a commercial package based on Wine) on Intel Mac OS X.