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Google Apps On Linux? Inevitable

Google is developing a version of its Picasa photo-management application for Linux, according to Linux-watcher Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at DesktopLInux.com. It's sort of a test, he says, and if it goes well other Google apps will likely get similar treatment. I'd say it's more than likely. It's inevitable.

The reasons have more to do with business than with technology -- although the technology seems to be working in Google's favor. Picasa on Linux is not exactly a port, because it combines the Windows code for the app with Wine technology from CodeWeavers Inc. to run Windows Picasa on Linux -- but don't worry your pretty little head about that. It works, and apparently works well enough that if you run Linux you will (a) find the install to be as easy as the Windows install and (b) notice no difference in performance.

That's an easy way for Google to develop applications that will run on both Windows and Linux. And it leads to a logical next step: The Google OS. We've had rumors over the past couple of months that Google is developing its own PC or its own operating system.

It's just too powerful an idea not to be true. Imagine the competitive traction Google would gain against Microsoft with a boxed OS product that would install a Linux distro and lifestyle applications on a PC, or a PC that came with GoogleOS pre-installed rather than WinXP. It's diamonds lying at Google's feet just waiting to be picked up.

Vaughn-Nichols even adds another substantiating detail -- according to "sources close to Google," he says, the Google Talk client is being moved to Linux -- a port, this time, not through CodeWeavers.

With Gmail, Picasa, Google Desktop and Google Talk (which supports VoIP chat, don't forget), plus OpenOffice and Firefox installed on -- what, a $200 PC? Something kinda stylish, maybe, like the Mac Mini? -- Google would have a winner. Just the combination to finally put Linux on a lot of desktops, you think?

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