Picasa replacement, anyone?

[eGON]

No, not iPhoto! I'm new to Macs and have probably missed something obvious and well-known.

I'm looking for something that indexes pics where they are on my system and doesn't make Mac mini-filling copies of each one. My pics are mostly on another machine so my wished-for prog should be able to read remote disks too.

In programming terms it looks a relatively simple database app which maintains multiple indexes and outputs thumbnails and the pics' tags. He said blithely...

Is there one?

[eGON]

No, not Easyshare either!!

This is awful: it takes over the CPU and clicking anywhere on it is useless as the busy icon (the spinning coloured wheel) runs literally for hours. It can only be stopped (within a human's lifetime, anyway) by killing the E'share processhttp://macapper.com/forums/images/modsmilies/cursing.gif . This was after it registered 1,401 pics on my system and no doubt stored copies of each one on my Mac mini hard disk!

Has anyone any experience of (preferably freeware and/or open source) photo-indexing software (as per OP) that is reasonably quick to use?

[eGON]

Why bother when Picasa2 can run on the Mac in the first place? I have it installed and working. What a relief!

No thanks from this noob to the MacApper 'community' over the last 2 weeks. Maybe nobody comes to this site anymore.