Comment 2 for bug 62924

Although these are commercial programs the issue of getting some 32-bit-only applications to run on 64-bit is wider than these examples. The integrated installers are generally the problem - not the applications themselves.

The solution (on Gutsy at least) is:

$ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
$ wget http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/i/ia32-libs-gtk/ia32-libs-gtk_16_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg --force-all -i ia32-libs-gtk_16_amd64.deb
$ sudo apt-get -f install

Now you should be able to install 32-bit applications:

$ sudo ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin
$ sudo ln -s /opt/google-earth/googleearth /usr/bin/googleearth
$ googleearth