August 26, 2022

Zerene Stacker

My old version (probably from 2014) still runs! But it lets me know that a newer version (from 2022) is available and it is available for free for me, since I paid money way back when. It finds it for me and launches a browser to help me download it.

It is version T2022-04-21-0715, 64 bit for Windows.

I run the installer. It is quick, and my old shortcut now installs the new version. Very nice. It even picked up the license to "Tom's Micros".

What about on Linux

A 64 bit version for Linux is also available. I own a $89 "personal" edition license that I bought back in 2014. The terms of the license allow it to be installed on 3 computers, but only to be used on one at a time. This certainly suits me. There is only one of me, but I am interested on trying it on my linux machine as well as the windows machine I usually use. I could possibly migrate to using linux entirely, but putting final stacks on a shared drive so I could use Lightroom on my windows machine to make final adjustments.

Here is how I installed it after downloading ZS-Linux-Intel-64bit-T2022-04-21-0715.zip. 

mkdir /u1/Zerere
cd /u1/Zerene
copy the zip file into this directory
copy my zerne.license file into this directory
unzip ZS-Linux-Intel-64bit-T2022-04-21-0715.zip
This yields the directory "ZereneStacker". Inside that directory is an elf executable also named "ZereneStacker". What I do is to create a script /home/tom/bin/zerene with only one important line, namely: 
#!/bin/sh
/u1/Zerene/ZereneStacker/ZereneStacker
This works just fine. I'll note in passing that the unzip yields over 1000 files, most of them are in two directories: "jre" and "exiftool". So apparently the author is using Java, at least for the GUI part of the program. Not to my taste, but to each his own. And it works, so I have nothing to complain about.

It is now running as a 30 day trial version. To install my license is a copy and paste operation. I launch Zerene, go to Options which yields a menu. I select "Registration" and get a block into which I can copy my license. It begins with ==== and ends with the obvious line. Don't include the "License: " prefix on the first line if your file has such.

It tells me it has accepted and installed the license. And indeed when I start it the next time it tells me that it is licensed to me on a personal license and the license does not expire.

Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Computer Info / tom@mmto.org