Hello, this is my regular look at what I have read online since last time.

Game performance on Linux vs Windows

I really like the original Enemy Territory game, it has a Linux client and server (among other platforms) and you run around and shoot your friends in a second world war setting. I only came to it quite recently, the guys at the Clan.Lugradio have been teaching me how to play.

A new game came out a few weeks ago called Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. It has a familiar type of gameplay but it is based in the Quake Sci-Fi world so I am personally less interested in it, however it is massive in the Linux world, not all commercial games have a Linux port so that builds the hype up for those that do.

Michael Larabel measured the performance of ATI cards on Linux and Windows:

> Wow! We were completely blown away when our final results came in and the Linux 8.42.3 driver had outperformed Windows Vista with Catalyst 7.10 in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. It wasn't just a neck-and-neck race but Linux was about 10 frames per second faster when running at 1280 x 1024 and 1680 x 1050.

When given a chance with native ports, Linux can really rock as a game platform. Expect more major games to arrive on Linux.

Understanding the Linux Desktop

Andrew W argues that Is Linux ready for the desktop isn't even the right question:

> A lot of the time the complaints mostly just come down to "Linux isn't Windows", where the reviews for some reason expects Linux to be a exact Windows replacement and any where Linux differs from Windows is seen as a fault. >....<br> Currently reviewers look at Linux and it doesn't work they way they expect so they cite this as a reason that Linux isn't ready for the desktop, so therefore by the same standards I can say with equal validity that Windows isn't ready for the desktop. Of course neither is really the case.

Dominic Humphries wrote an article called Linux is Not Windows, something that I have to remind people often. He is a little more pessimistic than I would be, his conclusion is basically go away newbies and get a Mac or use Windows, we don't want you and we don't need you. However his reasoning is quite sound and well articulated:

> It is logically impossible for any thing to be better than any other thing whilst remaining completely identical to it. A perfect copy may be equal, but it can never surpass. So when you gave Linux a try in hopes that it would be better, you were inescapably hoping that it would be different. Too many people ignore this fact, and hold up every difference between the two OSes as a Linux failure.

Johan Hartzenberg likewise encourages us to Have faith in Linux:

> People will always compare their experience of Linux with what they are used to getting from Windows. Unfortunately human nature have us focus on the negatives, and this means people overlook the great features of Linux and open source software because of a few small troubles.

New and Improved this month

Don Hopkins, the author of the early X ports of the original version of SimCity, is rewriting the front end in Python so it will work on the OLPC XO. Yes, the original SimCity is going open source, how cool is that!

Although given it's last rights a year ago, proving that you can't keep a good dog down, venerable media player XMMS just released a new version, 1.2.11 only 1211 days since the previous release (see what they did there .

The Mozilla.com Firefox build is proprietary software (use Epiphany!), so the Linux distributors download the source code, strip out the proprietary art, blobs and (sometimes) trademarks. Well some bright spark had the idea of adding this to the Firefox build process so this version would be automatically available from Mozilla. I hope this is implemented by someone.

On Monday, Version 3 of the Affero GPL was published. The AGPL is designed for software that runs on a server. The regular GPL can be used for server software quite fine. However, if you want people who use your software as an online service to share their changes back with you, then you need to use the AGPL.

The Importance of openness

Andy L talks about why we should look into the Open Rights group.

Bruce Perens still has it, his article The Confusion of Tongues: EIF 2.0, Standards, and Interoperability. He talks about why we must not compromise on open standards:

> The reality is that Open Standards are available to use today, and are the easiest alternative for a vendor to implement unless customer lock-in is the goal. There is no reason for customers to accept second best and then "migrate" later.

In the IT business there's a saying about what vendors want: "Every kid wants a pony." It means that vendors will want more than is reasonable for us, the customer, to give to them. For our own good, we need those vendors to have a piece of the pie rather than the whole pie, with reasonable but not huge profit margins, and lots of competition to keep them on their toes. Open Standards and the interoperability that results from them are our main tool in balancing what our vendors want against what is good for us, the customer.

Pull it all apart

Soledad Penades gently prises her Mac Mini apart, with lots of photos and videos.

I start up my Windows installs about once a year, usually for testing that some Python script I have written is cross-platform or something, and I usually have no any idea what any of the passwords are. Well some anonymous blogger talks about how to recover your Windows passwords using Linux LiveCDs.

ASUS have made a little computer called the the EeePC. Brad Linder explains how to escape from the default point and shoot interface to a full KDE desktop.

Paul Buchheit has a good rant about Amazingly bad APIs.

Bug explains how to use IMAP on Gmail, even if they haven't offered it to you in particular. Bug also recommends you when you make hyperlinks, ditch the target attribute in your anchor references, advice I would heartily second.

Andrew Min explains How to completely ditch GUI internet applications for the command line, as I have mentioned many times before, I myself use Elinks and Mutt quite a lot.

Bootnotes

Mistaken or out-dated SatNav data is being blamed for trucks crashing into houses. We of course know that it is really the Terminators.

The English football team lost a very important match against Croatia, meaning they will not be in the 2008 European Football Championship. Part of the problem was the goalkeeper Scott Carson, let in three goals on his first appearance for his country. What is the problem? Well look at the following images:

He forgot to park his jet in front of the goal.

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