I have an issue with the way Picasa (on linux)  is managing tag information. There is a lot of conflicting information out there about how Picasa does tags, so keen for some real world advice.

My setup involves a server running Win7, with two clients (office desktop, laptop) running Linux Mint and Picasa. All images are on the server. The Picasa profile is shared, sitting on the server, so both clients can update the same database. Not how Google intended, but works just fine (I am aware the kittens will cry if both clients attempt to update at the same time).

The issue is, if I update tag information on one of the clients, I can not see that new information if I open the file directly (using a separate image viewer on the client, not Picasa). At first I thought this meant Picasa was not storing the tags in the file, however here's the weird bit: if I view the image directly on the server using the Win7 viewer (Picasa is not even installed here), the new tag info is seen.

So, either Win7 is somehow reading the Picasa database (seems unlikely) or Picasa is storing the tags in some way that linux can not see/access.

Can anyone help out with this?

Alternatively, if anyone has any ideas for native linux photo management that can properly handle multiple clients and emailing I'm all ears.

Thanks