...and can we now have an up-to-date version of picasa as well?

Linux already has an impressive index and search tool called Beagle. Combined with the Deskbar, the Linux desktop (at least the Gnome environment) became even more pleasant to work with. Anyhow, choice is good. Oddly enough, Beagle participates in Google's Summer of Code. :)

http://beagle-project.org/Main_Page

http://raphael.slinckx.net/deskbar/

Does anyone really need to search their machine's content so often that they have to keep an up-to-date index of it's contents all the time? Doesn't everyone else switch off all indexing as soon as they get a machine?

I don't know any linux power users pining for google desktop. slocate does it all at 1/1000th the cpu and ram resources.

I looked on Google's site but I couldn't seem to find the generic .tar.gz source package .....

There's no way in hell that I would ever install a single piece of software on any computer of mine that had been compiled by anyone except me, or somebody independent of the authors and whom I trust.

I had my fingers burned one time too many in my Windows days .....

It makes me wonder why, after nearly thirty years of personal computing, we have to have something to search our systems for what we typed in a few days ago!

The fact that we use similar things on an enterprise scale makes me wonder what we've been using computers for.

Beagle blows, it uses hordes of resources and starts indexing at the oddest times, taking lots of CPU and Disk IO. I've often found it begin to index immediately after startup on a laptop on battery, even with the "Do not index portable" type option selected. I've had GDS on my work (XP) laptop for a year and I NEVER even notice it's there.

My main use for it is finding emails, rather than searching through multiple Notes databases, however, it's very good to find notes on various meetings that I scatter into logical file structures. I plan on eventually moving my work machine to Linux once I can work out the logistics with the wireless 80211x network, and this sort of tool will be invaluable to me then. At home it will also be nice to be able to find the occasional text file I know I have somewhere.

So ... basically I'll get a search engine that won't be as quick as slocate or find, but will look nicer? Bleh. Though its good to see Google recognizing Linux...

Though I prefer slocate, my only requirement is to run updatedb frequently ... which I do at midnight every day.

Warning; build #s 242.0a through 243.1e of this software from the Beijing facility may contain trace amounts of diethylene glycol and methyl-mercury.

Statements in the article: "Search app goes open source" and "The free software download" seem to conflict with the nature of this program. I had a 5 minute look at the Google support/documentation area for this program and couldn't find any reference either to the license or to a source code download for it. If it isn't genuinely free software as in freedom, and the source code isn't available, then this suggests sloppy and misleading journalism.

The idea that "Linux users have been left in the lurch all this time" due to the unavailability of what appears to be a proprietary and closed-source product on the platform Linux uses have chosen, ignores the reasons people choose Linux and the different nature of this platform.

Proprietary applications by their nature integrate with Linux no better than on proprietary operating systems. This integration is arguably worse on Linux given the fact that Linux developers have no reason to be held back by the need of proprietary platform developers to maintain binary APIs. The quality reasons why users choose Linux are partly because Linux developers are better able to assume that application source code is available for recompilation by packagers and distributors or by users directly. This enables the regular consignment of outdated code to the rubbish heap and a cleaner and more efficient household to maintain. There is a practical cost in having a more reliable and maintainable system and a willingness to break proprietary software is one of these.

The fact that Linux users who use proprietary applications and drivers are unable to update their systems in other ways without risk of breaking proprietary components makes those supplying genuinely free or open-source software into this market much better at meeting Linux users' needs.

A proprietary package has to have pretty good advantages to justify the likely extra effort of reinstallation every few months or the pain of holding the rest of your system back, and this particular gizmo seems unlikely to qualify.

>>Beagle blows, it uses hordes of resources and starts indexing at the oddest times, taking lots of CPU and Disk IO.

This is a standard built in feature of all indexing engines. Didn't you know?

there's tracker, pinot and some others all very usable and without the need to have anything from google the data miner on one's system....

I did a quick review of this. It seems decent enough. You can read the review here : http://www.adityanag.com/journal/?p=77

So what happens if you search "Tienanmen Square"?

Just curious. I know it searches your files and not the internet.

Last couple of days we've seen the BBC get slated for only bringing out a windows option for the iPlayers (even tho they've promised to bring out other versions) and then came the barrage of abuse from 'superior' linux (and other os) users slating the beeb for not bringing out a product (which in all fairness will be a minority in the real world usage picture). Ok ok before you say the BBC has a duty because it is a public service broadcaster - they also have a duty to give value for money (and in my opinion developing something that meets the needs of the mass market is good value for money.

Yet Google takes what - 3 years to develop a Linux version, and the general gist of the comments is "Don't want it anyway".

I thought Google was supposed to be opensource and linux friendly?

I have two dogs at home, and when i give them a bone each, they are both more interested in what the other dog has got. When they finally manage to steal the other dogs bone, they leave it on the floor! (they don't want it)

Sound familiar?

"There's no way in hell that I would ever install a single piece of software on any computer of mine that had been compiled by anyone except me, or somebody independent of the authors and whom I trust."

So when you download the source you then proceed to go through it checking for problems? Because if there WAS a source available, there won't have been any time for anyone to have done an analysis for issues with it yet.

Also, have you checked your compiler's source code? And then written a primitive compiler yourself in case your compiler binary is contaminated?

http://www.acm.org/classics/sep95/ is a great article about trust, and it doesn't even mention the BIOS or the CPU.

That said, the byline "Search app goes open source" is more than a little misleading (although it could be argued, not by me, that they mean "it's now available for an open source OS") though I'm not terribly surprised. Richard Kay has said it better than me. AND it only works on 32-bit distros on x86. "PPC is coming soon" - I'm fairly sure linux is used on more architectures than just ppc and x86... I can live with proprietary nvidia gfx drivers, and they are linked to a specific architecture, but for a utility like this, I'll give it a pass, thanks

Didn't google build their business ontop of open source systems..... so why are people saying "its good to see them recognise linux"... I have been complaining for like a year that they should get a google desktop onto Linux, it's the least they can do for a community that made their business possible!!

Now I am a little annoyed that when they do finally get round to doing it, they miss out the bit I actually use - the sidebar!! I normally switch off indexing on my windows partition cos it's a resource hog. Seriously - you wait and wait for things to load while it is indexing in the background over the space of a year, just so I can save myself a minute when I actually forget where I put something.... seems mental to me!! :)