Google Earth v4 Released - Linux Support at Last

chrisd writes "We're very happy to announce that the a new version of Google Earth has been released. It features 3D textured buildings, some neat UI updates, better internationalization and, with this release, a native Linux version is available for download as well. The Google Earth team (with the help of Ryan Gordon) worked very hard to make this possible. Please see the Earth support site and check out the BBS for more information."

Google Antifanboys Silenced

Now for China...

Thanks so much Google

For finally making a Linux version. Downloading it right now...

Specifically

"Thanks so much Google" - for finally making a Linux version .... of anything.

Re:Specifically

I'm curious to see if Earth is native.

It is, I just downloaded it and it installs and runs beautifully without any Wine (even checked for them hiding it with ps).

Re:Specifically

It uses Qt. Gives it that nice cross-platform property. Additionally Picasa was ported to linux using wine-libs not necessarily wine the program itself. The Linux Picasa does have some native dependencies such as libgphoto for direct access to cameras, and it integrates into your notification area in Gnome (and I believe KDE also [untested for me]). Also, they committed over 200 patches [google.com] to the wine codebase which is great. Furtheremore, thank you Google!!! It works great on Gentoo with ATI 9600. I requested it a long time ago, and it was a long time coming but it works and looks great. googlegoodwill++

Re:Specifically

I don't think it's your system that's slow. It appears that Google Earth has been slashdotted.

Where's the source?

What, I'm supposed to trust Google's binary?

Re:Where's the source?

Whatever you do, you can obviously never please a Linux user. First they complain about the missing support from software companies, then when some company ports their application to Linux, they complain about missing sources.

I've been using Linux for years now and I love open source software but I don't expect a software company to open their sources if it's not part of their business model.

So, thanks Google for the great job!

-DBS

Not all Linux users care for Stallmanism.

Perhaps some Linux users want software that installs and just works, without having to figure out crap about compiling versions, missing libraries, etc. Joe Sixpack don't care for Stallmanism, he just wants his software to work. Hence, believe it or not, there is a market for Linspire's "Click N Run" service, no matter how abhorent the concept is to some. SuSE Linux for years included software that was proprietary and closed sourced on their production CDs. People still used SuSE. If people want to follow Stallmanism anally, then they have the freedom to choose not to download and install the Google Earth software.

Re:Where's the source?

Whatever you do, you can obviously never please a Linux user. First they complain about the missing support from software companies, then when some company ports their application to Linux, they complain about missing sources.

I have a complaint. I have all this Linux kernel source code crap on my system and I can't understand a damn word of it.

Now there's progress.

$ googleearth
Segmentation fault
$

Re:Now there's progress.

I hear that segmentation earthquakes often occur along segmentation fault lines in the googleearth.

I would take any necessary precations.

Mac Sketchup (free)

Also today - Google's free version of Sketchup for the Mac is available: Download here [google.com]
More info on Sketchup [google.com] - it's basically a super-intuitive CAD program for quickly getting 3D ideas down on paper.

One company to rule them all...

Please see the Earth support site

Well, it finally happened... Google took over. But it's one thing to take the planet over, but quite another to provide support for it too. Man, I'd hate to be be at the other end of the support line... wonder if you need to run the standard Google employment gauntlet to be first-tier support?

That isn't true.

Earth is a native port (qt + opengl) Picasa uses wine.

Chris

Re:That isn't true.

Are you claiming that a port is not wine?

Re:Native?

It's using Qt:

dave@death:~/google-earth$ ldd googleearth-bin
[...]
        libqt-mt.so.3 => /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3 (0xb6dc2000)

That's just what "bare" Qt looks like. Ugly, isn't it?

(I COULD be wrong, of course, but icculus is a fairly major native Linux porter, so I'd doubt that he'd be working on a wine port.)

Re:Native?

This would mean you're not running it under KDE then. In this case, try running `qtconfig` first and play with the settings, you might be able to get a slightly better look.

Re:Native?

clunky with a capital K

Given Qt's close association with KDE, and the naming conventions that have arisen for KDE apps, "clunKy" or "Klunky" sound like appropriate terminology.

Re:Native?

I could be way off base here, but isn't the whole point of the Wine project not to produce a windows emulator but libraries that can be substituted for the Windows libraries your program is using to allow it to easily run on linux? If so I'd say Picasa is a shining example of the Wine projects maturity

Linux support?

(Mod company) +1 Not Evil

Check out the "Build 3D Models" Link!

Did anyone follow the link over there to Google SketchUp? I am amazed that this program hasn't gotten any publicity. Some details from the site:

"SketchUp is a simple but powerful tool for quickly and easily creating, viewing and modifying your 3D ideas.
* Click on a shape and push or pull it to create your desired 3D geometry.
* Experiment with color and texture directly on your model.
* Real-time shadow casting lets you see exactly where the sun falls as you model.
* Select from thousands of pre-drawn components to save time drawing.

And once you've built your models, you can place them in Google Earth, post them to the 3D Warehouse, or print hard copies. Google SketchUp is free for personal use. No registration is required."

What was that...

...about no publicity? [slashdot.org]

Re:Its true, it is a binary. What should I do now?

how should I protect myself from malicious binaries?

Don't them as root.

How is a binary unsafe but somehow source code is? I have a hard time believing you audit the code for everything that Gentoo installs. Why is a mirror offering up source code somehow trusted, but binaries aren't?

Re:Its true, it is a binary. What should I do now?

The tarball might be downloaded from anywhere, but if the hashes don't match you have a different file than the package maintainer used, and it won't be installed.

That doesn't tell you that it's safe, it tells you that it's the same thing the package maintainer used. All it means is you're passing the responsibility for auditing up the chain to the package maintainer.*

Now, the package maintainer for your distro may audit the code themselves, or they may rely on similar hashes/signatures to make sure that the source they use is the same as the source the project itself provides. In which case that's passing the buck up once again.

So really, what you're doing is relying on the original source to be safe...so it's not much different than relying on the original binary to be safe. It comes down to this: Do I trust the provider of this software? Inclusion in a distro can be seen as a vote of confidence: Gentoo includes app X, implying that Gentoo believes X is not going to take over my machine. You can choose to believe that anything included in your distro is likely to be safe, or rather that anything unsafe in it is unsafe by accident and not deliberately. (Choosing otherwise makes it a hell of a lot harder to build and maintain a system, though it can certainly be done.)

But hash checks and GPG signatures don't tell you that an app is safe, whether you download it as source or as a binary. They only tell you that it hasn't been altered.

*Note that the same is true for RPM-based distros like Fedora or SuSE -- packages are signed with GPG, and it won't install if the signature doesn't validate -- and I would assume for Debian-derived distros as well. This isn't a distro war issue.

NASA WorldWind also ready for Linux and MacOSX

IF you go to this WindWindCentral page, you'll learn that Google Earth's open source competitor is readying Linux and Mac versions of NASA World Wind [worldwindcentral.com]. You can learn a lot about WW here [slashgeo.org] and a lot about GE here [slashgeo.org].

"NASA is currently making plans for World Wind 1.5 [worldwindcentral.com]. This version will be available for multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux and the Macintosh."

Yes it IS native.

When run "sudo GoogleEarth . . . " it creates a directory in /usr/local/google-earth. That directory is chock full of .so files, not .DLL files. Also Icculus (Ryan Gordon) is "not a big fan of wine". Ryan and most of the folks who hang their hats at icculus.org are former employees or had connections to Loki Software, a company that made NATIVE PORTS of games.

One other chap who worked at Loki then moved on to Epic Software and brought us NATIVE ports of UT2003 and UT2004.

It's definitely native.

Thanks to Gordon and I hope you had fun working with the folks at Google.

This is indeed a great day, google earth was the only app I ever used on my laptop under Windows.

Yeah, it's not perfect yet, read the forums, play around with it, tweek it and it'll go.

BSD?

What about bsd and osx support? any chance?

Real Time Imagery for Google Earth

I think that the reason so many people do not care about Privacy issues is because they relish the idea of spying on their neighbors. I have had more than one person ask me a question which strongly suggested that they thought Google Earth was using real time imagery of their neighborhood.

They wanted to see what their neighbors were doing, or see where their kids were, etc. Nevermind the sunbathers behind the super high fence.

But they still liked the product even if they didn't have those features. I imagine it would be very popular if they could get the features they thought they had.

Works on Fedora Core 5

Just tried it with Fedora Core 5 (with ATI radeon drivers). Installed with no issues, works fine and works fast. I'm impressed! Thanks Google.

(note - I don't think it's using Wine... couldn't see any Wine related stuff in the process list...)

More best-in-class apps for the Linux desktop

Ok, so now we've got Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.06 (among other excellent distros), FireFox, Thunderbird, and now Picasa and Google Earth. In the foreseeable future we'll have an OpenOffice suite that runs a little faster and we'll have a legitimate iTunes competitor, Songbird.

Things are looking up for the Linux desktop, and for best-in-class software that runs on it. It's an exciting time to be a Linux fan, no? :-)

Crashes on startup

./librender.so(_ZN12RenderWidget6setApiEPN5earth4e vll3APIE+0x4b) [0xf65177bb]
./librender.so(_ZN5earth6render12RenderWindow12cre ateWidgetEv+0x8a) [0xf64ff6ba]
./libgoogleearth.so(_ZN5earth6client12ModuleWidget 9showEventEP10QShowEvent+0x7d) [0xf78b180d]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget5eventEP6QEvent+0x277) [0xf6f8cdb7]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN12QApplication14internalNotifyE P7QObjectP6QEvent+0xa1) [0xf6ee0731]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN12QApplication6notifyEP7QObject P6QEvent+0xc9) [0xf6ee1219]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget4showEv+0x266) [0xf6f8bd16]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget12showChildrenEb+0x11b) [0xf6f8ba6b]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget4showEv+0x207) [0xf6f8bcb7]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget12showChildrenEb+0x11b) [0xf6f8ba6b]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget4showEv+0x207) [0xf6f8bcb7]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget12showChildrenEb+0x11b) [0xf6f8ba6b]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget4showEv+0x207) [0xf6f8bcb7]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget12showChildrenEb+0x11b) [0xf6f8ba6b]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget4showEv+0x207) [0xf6f8bcb7]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget12showChildrenEb+0x11b) [0xf6f8ba6b]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget4showEv+0x207) [0xf6f8bcb7]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget12showChildrenEb+0x11b) [0xf6f8ba6b]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget4showEv+0x207) [0xf6f8bcb7]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget12showChildrenEb+0x11b) [0xf6f8ba6b]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget4showEv+0x207) [0xf6f8bcb7]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN11QMainWindow4showEv+0x93) [0xf705e513]
./libqt-mt.so.3(_ZN7QWidget10showNormalEv+0x33) [0xf6f85383]
./libgoogleearth.so(_ZN10MainWindow18readScreensiz eInfoEv+0x621) [0xf7876e61]
./libgoogleearth.so(_ZN5earth6client11Application3 runEiPPc+0x1569) [0xf789e2d9]
./libgoogleearth.so(_ZN5earth6client11ApplicationC 1EiPPcb+0x923) [0xf78a02c3]
./googleearth-bin [0x804c73d]
/lib32/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xd2) [0xf6279ea2]
./googleearth-bin(__gxx_personality_v0+0x41) [0x804a961]

We apologize for the inconvenience, but Google Earth has crashed.
This is a bug in the program, and should never happen under normal
circumstances. A bug report and debugging data are now being written
to this text file:

.googleearth/crashlogs/crashlog-0B103505. txt

This bug report will be sent to Google automatically next time you run
Google Earth. Its data, which contains no personal information, will help
us correct problems without bothering you further. If you would rather
this info not be transmitted, please delete the above file before running
the program again. If you want bug reports to NEVER be sent, remove the
above 'crashlogs' directory's read/write permissions.

Earth To Linux!

Finally! we got through :)

Well it seemed funny to me anyways.

Linux morons

sjeesh, leave a hint about Linux support and the Linux zealots stamp it into the ground. "Oh doesn't look nice", "Where is the source", "It doesn't run on my really really exotic Linux distribution", "How can I trust a binary distribution".

Basically people, "beep beeeeep" and get a life. You guys grab any opportunity to tell the world you are "cool" because you use Linux but all you do is complain while playing Windows games in a dark corner when nobody is looking and if you don't like Google Earth....

DON'T BLOODY USE IT!

"Not more than a finite number of times"

Why does the Google Pack EULA [google.com] ask me to agree not to do something that's physically impossible?

From the Google Pack EULA [google.com]:

NAV 2005 may contain enforcement technology that limits the ability to install the software on a computer to not more than a finite number of times for a finite number of computers, and you consent to the use of such measures.

Who in this universe has an infinite number of computers, or would install a piece of software an infinite number of times? Why don't also they require me to agree not to perform an infinite number of other impossible tasks? Why are so concerned about preventing people with infinite numbers of computers and patience installing their software?

-Don

A few observations

Hi all,

- This seems to be a binary package only, which uses a few common libraries beneath it
- Installs without a hitch on my system, defaults to /usr/local/google-earth
- Runs very smooth in Ubuntu 6.06 AMD 64 bit with nvidia driver, but it seems to need root permissions to start (installed with sudo on the 'binary' installer)
- No real desktop integration yet (at least with Gnome)
- Asks to install symlink in /usr/local/bin, but does not say which command (googleearth)
- Probably not a good idea to run with nv driver in X, chech your /etc/X11/xorg.conf
- Comes with nice Icon that works in Gnome in root of installation folder

Oh, I got a rather new 3GHz AMD 64/1 Gig, budget (fanless) videocard and 6 Mbit download. Not top of the bill, but quite nice anyway, your experiences may differ.

Unfortunately, it does not seem to be open source. A bit of a shame, the real work is in the infrastructure and obtaining the maps anyway.

Re:Oh, the Irony!

Um, yeah. The whole "500 versions" lie is always fun to repeat, but it conveniently ignores reality. If this were true, no binary programs would exist for the platform. This is not the case. id software releases native versions of all their games. Unreal Tournament has as well.

People have been repeating the "it'll never work" assertion since, well, forever, yet every day more stuff works. Reconcile that.

Watch out for CVE-2006-2193