A few months back someone contacted us wondering if we had a way to view MrSID images downloaded to disk using Linux. Well, we (LizardTech) do not officially offer a native Linux viewer, but I got to wondering about it and tried out the following steps on an Ubuntu 10.10 desktop release. Note that while the versions provided in the steps below were specific to the Firefox and Ubuntu releases at the time I tried this, you should be able to get similar results with other recent versions of Linux (both Ubuntu and other distros).

Here are the steps if you want to try it.

1. Install Wine 1.2 (version 1.2.1-0ubuntu1) from universe (using Synaptic or your favorite method).
2. From native Linux Firefox download the latest version of Firefox for Windows (Firefox Setup 3.6.12.exe).
3. Set the executable bit on the downloaded Firefox setup file.
4. Right-click the setup file from Nautilus or your favorite file explorer, then click Open With Wine Windows Program Loader.
5. Install Firefox in Wine.
6. Run the Windows version of Firefox (via Wine), go to http://www.lizardtech.com/downloads/viewers.php and download the ExpressView Browser Plug-in utility for Windows.
7. From the Wine File Manager double-click the downloaded ExpressView Browser Plug-in utility.
8. Install ExpressView.
9. Download your favorite MrSID file to the local file system.
10. Navigate to the file in the address bar of the Windows version of Firefox (running in Wine). Note: drag-drop from the Wine File Manager doesn’t seem to work.

You should end up with something that looks a little like this (click to enlarge the image below):

Note: to see the ExpressView About box, right-click on your image and choose About ExpressView.

As part of National Geography Week we at LizardTech have been asking ourselves what GIS and geography mean to us personally. What usually comes to mind for me (aside from work) is images from space on Google Maps. I like to scout places before I go, and perhaps show where I’ve been afterwards via GPS tracks like the ones displayed in Google Maps using this KML file.

It’s also cool to stumble on places I’ve been in the past. For instance I found the cheap hotel we stayed at in Jamaica in the mid-80s before this technology was available to the public. Here’s a link.

It was easy to spot because it is the only one up the road from the airport with a pool. It was one of the few Montego Bay hotels that would allow native Jamaican’s to stay (most were exclusively for tourists).

Lots of fun!