Skip to main content

Oooh wine!

I installed Picasa on my Ubuntu box today. It uses wine! For those who don't know what wine is, 'wine is not a (windows) emulator' for Linux. I used to hate wine. I had tried to run Kazaa way back in the day to get things off the internet and believe me, I got it to work, but with many hours of painful configuration. Linux has come a LONG way since then. I ran a ps --forest and viola

fatherted 8569 1 3 16:12 ? 00:00:11 /opt/picasa/wine/bin/../lib/../bin/wineserver
fatherted 8721 1 0 16:12 ? 00:00:00 c:\windows\system32\explorer.exe /desktop
fatherted 8959 1 0 16:12 ? 00:00:01 PicasaMediaDetector
fatherted 9198 1 71 16:12 ? 00:03:18 c:\Program Files\Picasa2\Picasa2.exe
It runs everything in wine. And I didn't have to do anything to get it to work. Now that is progress. Folks, seriously, for those of you who have whined and complained about how user unfriendly Linux is, give Ubuntu a spin. It won't do everything your Windows XP machine does... but it sure will wow you. Comparing this to Redhat 7 (the first Linux distro I dared to install on my desktop), this is a whole other world. Use Wubi and try it out. You might just convert.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New computer

I am getting a new computer after 5 years. Oddly, I seem to be reversing trends in terms of pricing. My new computer will actually cost me more than my previous one. What am I going to do with the new one? Same sort as stuff as with the current one. I am going to install Linux on it and use it as my desktop. I will likely convert my current machine to a server to host files and who knows what else. So, what does it have? It has an Intel Dual Core processors clocked at 2.8Ghz, a really cool ASUS motherboard, an NCQ enabled Seagate hard drive, 2GB of DDR2 RAM running at 533Mhz, an LG 16x DVD burner, a 6600 LE MSI Video card (with DVI and TVO), one of those fancy floppy disks with multiple memory card readers and the kicker, a funky kick-ass case that looks like a critter from some game. It is called the NZXT Nemesis Elite and I have stolen a pic from a site and put it here: The eye of this case can be modified to change colours (wow!). I should get it next Saturday. My biggest surprise s...

Being Happy

I wonder why there is so much unhappiness in the world sometimes. I'm currently reading R. K. Narayan's Waiting for the Mahatma. The world the protagonist in the book lives in is a rather harsh one. And he seems to be quite unhappy. What makes one unhappy? Some days, I ask myself what the heck I am doing here. Maybe its because I have worked for the same person for 4 years and the same company for over 6. This was supposed to be a short-term job that would bring bigger and better things. I don't know what it has brought. I mean, I am doing better things. I am doing bigger things. But I don't know if it makes me happy any more. I don't wake up with the anticipation of hurrying to work to learn something new and make the world a better place. I don't know why. I suppose I have the ability to do that to a certain extent. Is it the lack of ambition?  Reading back to some of the earliest posts on this blog, I gave myself the task of being happy. Like it is somethi...

Bhishma speaks!

For some of you, this might be a bit off. I trust that you will follow your instincts and learn something new today. I heard Bhishma speak today. There he lay, on a bed of arrows, asking for deliverance and some water. He was supposed to fight for the Kauravas, but we all knew, his heart lay on the side of the Pandavas. Only, in the modern day world, Bhishma happens to have a very famous New England surname, almost American regalness. Sure, he does not have a lion rampant or one that is passant or salient for that matter on his standard, but Bhishma was there in all his glory, renouncing everything, waiting for Hastinapur to go back into the hands of the righteous before he dies. He even made the pledge to not die until Hastinapur changes hands back to the Pandavas. Somewhere along the way, the children of Hastinapur get confusing. They mould swiftly from the Elephant and the Ass to Hillary and the one that is Arjuna. Not Ranatunga mind you, but the real deal. Arjuna who is the third ...