Google Earth beta for Linux

June 12, 2006

I was pleasantly surprised to just learn that there’s a beta of Google Earth v4 for Linux. I’ve heard some good stuff about Google Earth, and saw it running on a Windows machine once, but had never installed it (even when using a Windows machine). So, I thought I’d give it a try out today. It’s very nice!

I won’t go in to all the ins and outs of the software itself - ogleearth.com would probably do a better job than I could. What impressed me was the linux installer. Yes, it still required me to run something from the command line - well, two things, really. One, make the .bin file executable; two, run it.

I was treated to a basic KDE-ish dialog asking which directory I wanted to install in to, and that was it. It installed all dependancies in to the local directory - much like OS X apps tend to do. Yes, if there’s a bug in libqt that needs patching, I’ll need to upgrade it. Yes it was larger than it probably needed to be. But it worked, and worked flawlessly. This has been the sort of approach I’ve been arguing for for years, and I know a few others have, but to little avail. Perhaps a large enough company like Google can bring a bit of practicality to desktop Linux, rather than focusing solely on the theoretically pure way of doing things.

I hope there’s more Linux apps coming from Google and indeed, others who choose to make their software as easily accessible to a larger desktop Linux audience