[plug] CompuPic Rave ...

[Trevor Phillips]

Ok, I'm rather excited about this, and you lot are the best forum for me to
rave to. ^_^

I don't know if any of you can remember, but a while ago I was on a quest to
find a Linux alternative to ACDSee, an excellent shareware Image Viewer and
Manager for Windoze... I found a few utils, but nothing approaching the
integrated features of ACDSee, and contact with ACDSee they said they would
not be doing a Linux port.

Things looked a bit grim, until today I read the LinuxWorld Editors Choice
Awards (http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-08/lw-08-penguin_1.html)
from the recent Expo, and they awarded the Graphics/Art category prizes to
Gimp as the winner (no surprises there), and CompuPic as the runner-up!

Some investigation revealed CompuPic is a similar product to ACDSee, selling
for US$40ish, and it currently is being ported to Linux, with a Public Beta! 

There's a site with info here: http://linux.compupic.com/
The History of the Port is also an interesting read:
http://linux.compupic.com/history.html
(I'll leave the rest of the rummaging to those interested. ^_^)

To sum up the history, two enthusiastic staff members wanted to port it, and
made a bet they could do it in 90 days, and if they won, the Company would
release the Linux version free for non-commercial use, and so the Linux
version, in the tradition of many Linux things, will be free! (For
non-commercial use... ^_^)

Anyway, I found it really interesting, and a great sign of the way things are
heading for Linux.

The Beta release itself I tried out, and I have a few issues with it (certain
functionality, mainly in the file-management area), but it is still a beta,
and I was very impressed by the level of multi-tasking built into it (such as
generating thumbnails in the background, etc...) (Or maybe this new PC is just
toooo quick, but then, I also ran two SETI's to try & slow it down. ^_^;)

-- 
. Trevor Phillips             -           http://jurai.murdoch.edu.au/ . 
: CWIS Technical Officer         -           T.Phillips at murdoch.edu.au : 
| IT Services                       -               Murdoch University | 
 >------------------- Member of the #SAS# & #CFC# --------------------<
| On nights such as this, evil deeds are done. And good deeds, of     /
| course. But mostly evil, on the whole.                             /
 \      -- (Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters)                          /