From Google's own pages, on replacing the Google Earth plugin with the Google Maps program:

Google Maps now has ‘Earth Mode’, which allows you to view satellite imagery and tilt the view to see it in 3D. It is based on WebGL, which is the modern way to do things. But it is not yet a replacement for the Google Earth Plugin: - Its performance is terrible in comparison to the plugin. - It lacks the ability to display KMLs other than via a complicated route through Google Earth Engine – which requires a licence, except for very small data-sets. - Although Maps has a JavaScript API, it has very different functionality from the plugin’s API. - It does not show 3D models – only the new type of 3D imagery that consists of a single mesh. - Navigation is difficult, with less sophisticated controls than the plug-in. Hmm... Does this mean that the Earth plugin for Windows and Mac will also soon go the way of the dodo? On Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 9:37 AM, Marcus Meissner wrote:

On Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 09:34:57AM +0100, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:

...

Funny that I am just noticing this, but has Google stopped supplying the Earth plugin for Linux? Or am I remembering incorrectly and there never was one? I do tend to use the program as it allows larger files than the plugin. But I will be enhancing some software that we have that generates KML files and was wanting to explore the KML samples at https://kml-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/interactive/index.html and saw the message.

Apparently...

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2014/11/timeline-end-google-earth-pl...

Ciao, Marcus

-- Roger Oberholtzer -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

As browsers remove support for NPAPI (Netscape Plugin API) this will cease to work. Plugins like Google Earth will cease to work. Google have removed NPAPI from Chrome for Linux. In December of 2015 it will be gone for other platforms as well. I do not know what plans other browsers have WRT NPAPI. NPAPI seems a PITA in terms of stability. On Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 2:26 PM, James Knott wrote:

On 12/15/2014 03:34 AM, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:

...

Funny that I am just noticing this, but has Google stopped supplying the Earth plugin for Linux? Or am I remembering incorrectly and there never was one? I do tend to use the program as it allows larger files than the plugin. But I will be enhancing some software that we have that generates KML files and was wanting to explore the KML samples at https://kml-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/interactive/index.html and saw the message.

It's available here: http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html

However, Google Earth on Linux has been broken for quite some time, regardless whether you use the plugin from Google or or the official openSuSE one.

-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

-- Roger Oberholtzer -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org