Breeze Downloader Pro is one of the slickest pieces of photography software I have. It doesn’t do much, but what it does, it does well. It automates one of the most tedious aspects of image file management. Where it really shines is in the field, when I’m generating large numbers of images with little time for image management. I shove a memory card into the card reader of my laptop and Downloader Pro takes over. It transfers all of the images to my laptop and simultaneously backs them up to my external hard drive. While doing this, it renames them (using my customized format) and stamps them all with my name, copyright, job and other IPTC metadata. If I’ve downloaded the track from my GPS, it will also tag the images with GPS metadata. While this is going on, I can focus on more important tasks like image editing, sensor cleaning, even eating or bathing!

I’m trying to shift my photography workflow to Linux, but my beloved Downloader Pro doesn’t have a Linux version. I haven’t been able to find an equivalent Linux replacement. Damon Lynch has done a great job with Rapid Photo Downloader, but the metadata capabilities aren’t there yet. If you don’t need the metadata features, give Rapid Photo Downloader a try. [Edit: As pointed out in the comments, this implies that Rapid Photo Downloader doesn’t do metadata. That’s not true. It does have metadata support (such as smart renaming of files based on EXIF information) – just not enough for my own workflow needs.]

Luckily for me, Downloader Pro will run using Wine. If you are reading this, you are probably already using Linux and have heard about Wine. In a nutshell, Wine permits running Windows programs under a Linux OS. The Wine maintainers are careful to point out that it’s not a Windows emulator (hence the name – “Wine Is Not an Emulator”). I won’t go into any more detail about Wine. All I’ll say is, make sure you install it from your Linux repository before going any further. (It should work in the default configuration. If not, open a terminal and type wineconfig to get access to the configuration panel. Some systems will give GUI access to wineconfig.)

Go to the Breeze Systems download page and get a copy of Downloader Pro. I put mine in my Downloads folder. Wine sees this as

z:\home\arthur\Downloads\dp210.exe

Notice that Wine uses the Windows style of file path names. Now, open up a terminal and run the Downloader Pro installer. Type:

wine "z:\home\arthur\Downloads\dp210.exe"

Whoa – the Windows installer pops up before your very eyes. Follow the instructions just as you would if installing on a Windows machine. Currently, I’m using Linux Mint 8 (64 bit version) and the installer runs without a hitch. When it’s done, you’ll find Downloader.exe (and a bunch of support files) in “/home/yourusername/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/BreezeSys/Downloader Pro”.

I’ve also done this with PCLinuxOS and there was a problem – a persistent error near the end of the install. It turns out, if you just kill the install process at this point, Downloader Pro will still work. I’m not sure what it is that the installer never gets around to doing, but it can’t be too important. (I did notice minor text errors in the Downloader Pro Preferences dialogues under PCLinuxOS). Bottom line – if you get an error installing under some other Linux distribution, kill the installer and keep your fingers crossed! This seems to work for other Windows programs, too, so keep it tucked away in your book of tricks.

To run Downloader Pro, from a terminal, type:

wine "c:\Program Files\BreezeSys\Downloader Pro\Downloader.exe"

With a bit more work, you can even put Downloader Pro in your application launcher. In Mint (Gnome), go to Preferences->Start Menu and add an entry under Graphics. The command line should read:

env WINEPREFIX="/home/yourusername/.wine" wine "c:\Program Files\BreezeSys\Downloader Pro\Downloader.exe"

(In fact, there will already be an entry for Downloader Pro, but in the Wine section.)

Another Linux hurdle crossed. It wasn’t that hard, after all.

Update March 18, 2010: Those problems with text in PCLinuxOS, mentioned above? Turns out they’re not infrequent with Wine (under several distributions). The solution (thanks to the Ubuntu forums:

Use a text editor to create a “settings.txt” file with the following lines:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\X11 Driver]
"ClientSideWithRender"="N"
"ClientSideWithCore"="N"

Then, from a terminal, run the following command:

regedit settings.txt

which updates Wine’s copy of the Windows registry. Finally, from the terminal, type

winecfg

You’ll get a lot of messages about fonts. Once it’s done, run Downloader Pro (or other problematic app.) and your fonts should be good. It certainly fixed everything here.