Google Earth has taken online mapping to a whole new level offering a fantastic display of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS 3D globe. Google Earth was released for Linux on June 12, 2006 and has attracted quite a bit of attention, with has brought us many questions about the installation and working on Google Earth.
Today we'll first review the installation process of Google Earth on the Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron Linux distribution desktop. After a successful installation of Google Earth we'll examine some new features like the Street Scene, which allows users to view actual photos in a 360 degree view from the street in front of a specific address.
First we need to download Google Earth .bin file to your Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron desktop. To continue we must agree to the Terms of Service.
Firefox will now allow us to save the file by clicking the Save File button.
In the downloads window we can see the progress of the GooglEarthLinux.bin file which is 19.3 MB in size.
Here is the GoogleearthLinux.bin file completly downloaded on the desktop.
After the file has finished downlaoding we need install it using the terminal. Select Applications --- Accessories --- Terminal.
When the Terminal window opens type cd ~/Desktop and press enter. (Changes to the directory where the file downloaded to) Next type chmod +x GoogleEarthLinux.bin (Change installer permission so we can run it) And finally type sudo ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin (Run installer file we just downloaded as the root user)
After typing these commands you shoud see the Google Earth Setup window. Choose where you want to install Google Earth and press the Begin Install button in the bottom right corner of the Google Earth Setup window.
Now we can view the Google Earth Installation progress on our Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron desktop.
Finally, the installation has been successfully completed. As shown in the screenshot below, if we type 'googleearth' into the Terminal it will automatically launch Google Earth for us.
Google Earth is as useful as it is entertaining and has a great range of features that help your explore the Earth.
New features for Google Earth 4.3 include:
Photo-Realistic Buildings - More 3D buildings in more cities than ever before. Explore in 3D in San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Orlando, Munich, Zurich, and dozens more
New Navigation Controls - Fly around faster and easier with the great new navigation controls and even use a joystick to navigate.
Sunlight Feature - Using the Time slider you can watch the sunset or rise and everything in between by moving one way or another.
Street View - Google Earth at its best with a high quality 360 degree view of addresses in your city.
If you'd like to watch a video demostrating the new features of Google Earth scroll down.
