Slashdot Mirror

I've wasted alot of time playing the Torcs driving simulator, trying to beat Berniw on the alpine course in a McLaren F1.

<a href="http://raptorv2.sourceforge.net">raptor</a&g t;

...i nearly always install on new systems:
CoreWar: simulation game where a number of warriors try to crash each other while they are running in a virtual computer.
Battle for Wesnoth: fantasy turn-based strategy game.
BZFlag: multiplayer 3D tank battle game.
Crimson Fields: tactical war game in the tradition of Battle Isle.
Crossfire: cooperative multiplayer graphical RPG and adventure game.
Enigma: inspired by Oxyd on the Atari ST and Rock'n'Roll on the Amiga.
FlightGear: Flight simulator.
FreeDroid: clone of the classic game "Paradroid" on Commodore 64.
Frozen Bubble: puzzle-bobble clone.
Globulation 2: Real-Time Strategy.
LinCity: city/country simulation game.
LBreakout 2: breakout-style arcade game in the manner of Arkanoid.
NetHack - Falcon's Eye: mouse-driven interface for NetHack that enhances the visuals, audio and accessibility of the game, yet retains all the original gameplay and game features.
netPanzer: online multiplayer tactical warfare game designed for FAST ACTION combat.
Pathological: enriched clone of the game "Logical" by Rainbow Arts.
Project StarFighter: xy-axis star fighting game.
SuperTux: classic 2D jump'n run sidescroller game.
XKobo: astpaced multiway scrolling shoot-em-up.
XRick: clone of Rick Dangerous.
XScorch: Scorched Earth clone.

Have fun!

...i nearly always install on new systems:
CoreWar: simulation game where a number of warriors try to crash each other while they are running in a virtual computer.
Battle for Wesnoth: fantasy turn-based strategy game.
BZFlag: multiplayer 3D tank battle game.
Crimson Fields: tactical war game in the tradition of Battle Isle.
Crossfire: cooperative multiplayer graphical RPG and adventure game.
Enigma: inspired by Oxyd on the Atari ST and Rock'n'Roll on the Amiga.
FlightGear: Flight simulator.
FreeDroid: clone of the classic game "Paradroid" on Commodore 64.
Frozen Bubble: puzzle-bobble clone.
Globulation 2: Real-Time Strategy.
LinCity: city/country simulation game.
LBreakout 2: breakout-style arcade game in the manner of Arkanoid.
NetHack - Falcon's Eye: mouse-driven interface for NetHack that enhances the visuals, audio and accessibility of the game, yet retains all the original gameplay and game features.
netPanzer: online multiplayer tactical warfare game designed for FAST ACTION combat.
Pathological: enriched clone of the game "Logical" by Rainbow Arts.
Project StarFighter: xy-axis star fighting game.
SuperTux: classic 2D jump'n run sidescroller game.
XKobo: astpaced multiway scrolling shoot-em-up.
XRick: clone of Rick Dangerous.
XScorch: Scorched Earth clone.

Have fun!

...i nearly always install on new systems:
CoreWar: simulation game where a number of warriors try to crash each other while they are running in a virtual computer.
Battle for Wesnoth: fantasy turn-based strategy game.
BZFlag: multiplayer 3D tank battle game.
Crimson Fields: tactical war game in the tradition of Battle Isle.
Crossfire: cooperative multiplayer graphical RPG and adventure game.
Enigma: inspired by Oxyd on the Atari ST and Rock'n'Roll on the Amiga.
FlightGear: Flight simulator.
FreeDroid: clone of the classic game "Paradroid" on Commodore 64.
Frozen Bubble: puzzle-bobble clone.
Globulation 2: Real-Time Strategy.
LinCity: city/country simulation game.
LBreakout 2: breakout-style arcade game in the manner of Arkanoid.
NetHack - Falcon's Eye: mouse-driven interface for NetHack that enhances the visuals, audio and accessibility of the game, yet retains all the original gameplay and game features.
netPanzer: online multiplayer tactical warfare game designed for FAST ACTION combat.
Pathological: enriched clone of the game "Logical" by Rainbow Arts.
Project StarFighter: xy-axis star fighting game.
SuperTux: classic 2D jump'n run sidescroller game.
XKobo: astpaced multiway scrolling shoot-em-up.
XRick: clone of Rick Dangerous.
XScorch: Scorched Earth clone.

Have fun!

...i nearly always install on new systems:
CoreWar: simulation game where a number of warriors try to crash each other while they are running in a virtual computer.
Battle for Wesnoth: fantasy turn-based strategy game.
BZFlag: multiplayer 3D tank battle game.
Crimson Fields: tactical war game in the tradition of Battle Isle.
Crossfire: cooperative multiplayer graphical RPG and adventure game.
Enigma: inspired by Oxyd on the Atari ST and Rock'n'Roll on the Amiga.
FlightGear: Flight simulator.
FreeDroid: clone of the classic game "Paradroid" on Commodore 64.
Frozen Bubble: puzzle-bobble clone.
Globulation 2: Real-Time Strategy.
LinCity: city/country simulation game.
LBreakout 2: breakout-style arcade game in the manner of Arkanoid.
NetHack - Falcon's Eye: mouse-driven interface for NetHack that enhances the visuals, audio and accessibility of the game, yet retains all the original gameplay and game features.
netPanzer: online multiplayer tactical warfare game designed for FAST ACTION combat.
Pathological: enriched clone of the game "Logical" by Rainbow Arts.
Project StarFighter: xy-axis star fighting game.
SuperTux: classic 2D jump'n run sidescroller game.
XKobo: astpaced multiway scrolling shoot-em-up.
XRick: clone of Rick Dangerous.
XScorch: Scorched Earth clone.

Have fun!

...i nearly always install on new systems:
CoreWar: simulation game where a number of warriors try to crash each other while they are running in a virtual computer.
Battle for Wesnoth: fantasy turn-based strategy game.
BZFlag: multiplayer 3D tank battle game.
Crimson Fields: tactical war game in the tradition of Battle Isle.
Crossfire: cooperative multiplayer graphical RPG and adventure game.
Enigma: inspired by Oxyd on the Atari ST and Rock'n'Roll on the Amiga.
FlightGear: Flight simulator.
FreeDroid: clone of the classic game "Paradroid" on Commodore 64.
Frozen Bubble: puzzle-bobble clone.
Globulation 2: Real-Time Strategy.
LinCity: city/country simulation game.
LBreakout 2: breakout-style arcade game in the manner of Arkanoid.
NetHack - Falcon's Eye: mouse-driven interface for NetHack that enhances the visuals, audio and accessibility of the game, yet retains all the original gameplay and game features.
netPanzer: online multiplayer tactical warfare game designed for FAST ACTION combat.
Pathological: enriched clone of the game "Logical" by Rainbow Arts.
Project StarFighter: xy-axis star fighting game.
SuperTux: classic 2D jump'n run sidescroller game.
XKobo: astpaced multiway scrolling shoot-em-up.
XRick: clone of Rick Dangerous.
XScorch: Scorched Earth clone.

Have fun!

...i nearly always install on new systems:
CoreWar: simulation game where a number of warriors try to crash each other while they are running in a virtual computer.
Battle for Wesnoth: fantasy turn-based strategy game.
BZFlag: multiplayer 3D tank battle game.
Crimson Fields: tactical war game in the tradition of Battle Isle.
Crossfire: cooperative multiplayer graphical RPG and adventure game.
Enigma: inspired by Oxyd on the Atari ST and Rock'n'Roll on the Amiga.
FlightGear: Flight simulator.
FreeDroid: clone of the classic game "Paradroid" on Commodore 64.
Frozen Bubble: puzzle-bobble clone.
Globulation 2: Real-Time Strategy.
LinCity: city/country simulation game.
LBreakout 2: breakout-style arcade game in the manner of Arkanoid.
NetHack - Falcon's Eye: mouse-driven interface for NetHack that enhances the visuals, audio and accessibility of the game, yet retains all the original gameplay and game features.
netPanzer: online multiplayer tactical warfare game designed for FAST ACTION combat.
Pathological: enriched clone of the game "Logical" by Rainbow Arts.
Project StarFighter: xy-axis star fighting game.
SuperTux: classic 2D jump'n run sidescroller game.
XKobo: astpaced multiway scrolling shoot-em-up.
XRick: clone of Rick Dangerous.
XScorch: Scorched Earth clone.

Have fun!

I used to play Scorched Earth almost every day afterschool for a while in high school on my friend's 386SX. Great fun.

Now there's an Open Source, 3D panning, zooming, rendered version of the venerable game.

No first person shooting. No Viet-cong. No Desert Eagle. Just a big gun, an angle, a force, and if you're good enough, a hit.

I like to think of it as a wine that's had sufficient time to age. Doubtless, the younger ones will not appreciate this fine wine in favor of a brand new Mickey's "fine malt liquor." Still, I like it.

I haven't seen it mentioned yet, so I'll throw it out there -- PARSEC47 is proof that talented individuals need not be specialists. Tumiki fighters and parsec have been featured on slashdot not too long ago, with source code and windows binaries. I'm pleased to mention that an acquaintance has started up a sourceforge project to port Cho's games to Linux.

PARSEC is attributed to a single person, Kenta Cho. To sum the game is difficult, but I shall try. It's a stereotypical top down shooter with incredible amounts of ammo coming your way. Part of what distinguishes itself from the crowd is its particular aesthetic. The majority of the visuals are abstract GL_LINES, visually reminiscent of Tempest, and the music is trance/techno. It doesn't pay attention to plot, pacing or any other modern trappings of a "game" but is still very enjoyable. It has no plot, much like tetris has no ending, other than failure. It is a genre distilled and its waiting for you.

I haven't seen it mentioned yet, so I'll throw it out there -- PARSEC47 is proof that talented individuals need not be specialists. Tumiki fighters and parsec have been featured on slashdot not too long ago, with source code and windows binaries. I'm pleased to mention that an acquaintance has started up a sourceforge project to port Cho's games to Linux.

PARSEC is attributed to a single person, Kenta Cho. To sum the game is difficult, but I shall try. It's a stereotypical top down shooter with incredible amounts of ammo coming your way. Part of what distinguishes itself from the crowd is its particular aesthetic. The majority of the visuals are abstract GL_LINES, visually reminiscent of Tempest, and the music is trance/techno. It doesn't pay attention to plot, pacing or any other modern trappings of a "game" but is still very enjoyable. It has no plot, much like tetris has no ending, other than failure. It is a genre distilled and its waiting for you.

The Boost developer mailing list provides a wealth of practical experience and innovative software engineering for the C++ programmer. Not only do you learn how the amazing libraries work, you get to see the thought and development process that goes into them. I did not really understand templates until I joined this list.

I miss it a lot...
But I wasn't the only one, and someone with more time and coding capability than me started making UltimateStunts.
I can't wait 'till it's done...

Vega Strike

Without a doubt one of the premiere open source games. If you've ever played Wing Commander, Privateer, Elite, Escape Velocity Nova, you will love this game!

It's a 3d space combat/flying game where you accept all sorts of different missions (piracy, search and destroy, rescue, cargo hauling, patrol, exploration, etc) for money. You can purchase different starships and upgrade them to top of the line milspec craft. You can take the missions, or just fly around making credits as a tramp freighter, taking profitable cargos from station to planet to base.

There's also a really sweet dynamic universe, with the different empires constructing fleets of ships which do battle (and you can see the battles happen if you are in the same system!), and you can read about the progress of the wars on the dynamic news system.

The artwork is sweet, with a lot of professional-quality stuff. The graphics engine is awesome, and the gameplay rocks too.

This is the game you're looking for.
(Windows, OSX, Linux)

BZFlag, definitely.

For technical game development discussion, gdalgorithms is good: info.

sweng-gamedev is also sometimes interesting; as you might guess from the name, it focuses more on the engineering side and less on algorithms: info

Don't forget there's also DBAN, another open source disk nuker.

It will go on CD or floppy, runs linux, and includes a variety of different methods to wipe with including DoD 7-pass and 3-pass. There's also the 35-pass Gutmann Wipe but it is only appropriate for hard drives from the 70's. Newer drives need not apply.

Here's a good site for more information about sanitizing. The short version: The only way to destroy data is to burn the platters with temps exceeding 750 degrees long enough to cause the iron to lose its magnetic properties. Otherwise to protect against software recovery tools for newer drives you just overwrite with a (good) random number stream (PRNG).

Don't forget there's also DBAN, another open source disk nuker.

It will go on CD or floppy, runs linux, and includes a variety of different methods to wipe with including DoD 7-pass and 3-pass. There's also the 35-pass Gutmann Wipe but it is only appropriate for hard drives from the 70's. Newer drives need not apply.

Here's a good site for more information about sanitizing. The short version: The only way to destroy data is to burn the platters with temps exceeding 750 degrees long enough to cause the iron to lose its magnetic properties. Otherwise to protect against software recovery tools for newer drives you just overwrite with a (good) random number stream (PRNG).

I was running 2 (legal) copies of winxp pro at home for one reason. Star Wars Galaxies (I have 2 accounts). That was, up until last weekend. The latest release of Cedega (winex) plays SWG almost perfectly. (2 little glitches that don't affect game play -- the login screen does not display the latest news and once in game, if you release the mouse cursor and try to pan by mousing to the edge of the screen it only pans a fraction at a time). In fact, the game runs smoother with shorter load times than it did under windows on the same hardware (who would have thought?). I am even using my Nostromo N52 and N50 (one on one machine, one on the other) seamlessly (Thanks trithemius!)

I am now once again Windows free at home. I cannot say Microsoft free because I need IE for a few things (2 admin devices my company has at our remote location -- 1 remote kvm and 1 remote power strip), but those run under Crossover Office and handles those crappy written for M$ java applets just fine.

I'm willing to test the hell out of 3 if gnome has a menu editor and it's enabled. No offense, it's a terrific desktop/distro and I love bug hunts, but I've gotta have a better way to edit menus than vim.

htop: top takes a quantum leap.

So what you really need is a bootable CD with software so simple and stripped down that it lets you browse the web and nothing else.

K-meleon, Moz based browser I use (and have for 3 years both at home and here at work on winders) was fixed by the users with a simple User_Pref

Who needs a 20Mb download, huh?

Nick

K-meleon, Moz based browser I use (and have for 3 years both at home and here at work on winders) was fixed by the users with a simple User_Pref

Who needs a 20Mb download, huh?

Nick

With the cost of upgrades, the continued security holes, the perceived instability, the required activation, and the neutering of XP Home... I really don't see myself or others upgrading from Win98 or Win2K without being forced to.

How's that going to happen? Microsoft is going to have to discontinue support for those operating systems.

And, I suspect that's their longer term plan. By cutting support, when the next window of bit-rot or software bloat forces a user to consider their options, I think Microsoft is banking on intimidating them into a newer version of the OS, no matter the cost.

It was precisely the anticipation of this world wide event that made me switch to using Apple's OS X (based on FreeBSD!) and start finding non-Microsoft solutions via Linux.

I've found a new mouth piece as well. When I went to evangelize alternate solutions to friends and family, I got the standard "but you're a geek" roll of the eyes. I was, however, able to convert my wife of alternatives to Microsoft with the use of applications such as Mozilla's Firefox as a browser replacement to get rid of pop-ups/adware and Thunderbird to stop her from getting infected with viruses.

Upon learning that there are alternative solutions with better features that let her not have to deal with everyday annoyances, she was an easy sell on Linux, and now uses Putty and SSHing -- something I never thought I'd see!

She's the one who gets creditability marks with her friends. They know she's an artist and not a computer geek. If she's raving about it, they want to try it, because obviously it's not above their level.

Linux, however, is going to have to compete hard with Microsoft. It isn't Linux's free price tag or outstanding stabilily that's holding it back. It's complexity.

The learning curve is too great for the non-technical user to setup and immediately start using it. Microsoft scores big when it comes to easy install for a basic system, and they actually do automatic updates quite well from a simplicity standpoint.

What many geeks don't get is simple computer users are willing to give up power and features for ease of use. If someone put out a basic distribution that auto-detected hardware, did an easy install, and set up the basic environment with nothing but the standard Office tools -- much like a dumbed down version of Mandrake or BeOS or the free OpenBeOS version.

Microsoft sees that "we don't get it" and aren't catering a special distribution to "grandma", and with that fact they leverage Windows into homes, knowing that once someone invests in learning something, they usually don't switch without good cause (frustration, cost, or inapplicability to task).

Slackware was my first distro too can't remember the version, but it was pre version 1 - old man :-(.
I've just installed Vector Linux 4.0 on my laptop and on an older desktop - it's a good way into a fast efficient no-frills linux system. I'm a windows developer so my work laptop is a w2k machine, to make it bearable I've installed niceties such as bash, gvim and perl. You could use Bochs machine emulator to run w2k under linux. If you dual boot, you can use thunderbird email on a dual boot system with a single mailbox.

Vector linux is easy to install and configure, forget all the folks who think a gui is essential for everything, as a windows developer you'll already know how to hack your way through the registry and various config files. That's all you need to do with slackware too.

Again, I beg to differ

Moll.

From a development perspective, it's hard to be in the tool space. O.S.S. contributes to this affect as does Microsoft itself. Why purchase Mind Genius when I can just download and use Free Mind for free? Why purchase Eudora when Outlook Express is already bundled (for typical users) with the machine?

Does OSS hurt I.T., E.R.P., or niche programming? No. In fact, O.S.S. enables development in these spaces dramatically by lowering the barrier to entry.

This is a Mozilla engine bug, and should be fixed in an upcoming version of Firefox and other Moz-based browsers.

What about LINE?

From the homepage:
LINE Is Not an Emulator
LINE executes unmodified Linux applications on Windows by intercepting Linux system calls. The Linux applications themselves are not emulated. They run directly on the CPU just like all other Windows applications.

What I would like to see more in distros is Zero Install.

No more keeping lists of available packages on your local system, or worse, manually tracking dependencies. No more packages not being available for your distro. No more compiling from source. Instead, click and you've got it. I couldn't think of a more user friendly way to install software.

The other great advantage is that it integrates well with both the Web and the local system. With Zero Install you can click and run programs like Java applets, but they will _really_ integrate with your desktop, and _really_ run at native speed. Now hopefully we can kick some bloat out of applications so that they don't take a day to download.

zfeeder is what I use. It's a php app for a web server. The big advantage is that you don't need anything installed on a client machine, so you can get your feeds pretty much anywhere.

Thanks for the update. Last time I had checked DeeGree they didn't have the WFS-T capabilities. The WFS-T capabilities appear to be fairly new as of April 2004 so I guess I'll be evaluating it again.

It's not automagically, but worth a try: doXfs.

giFT is a P2P file sharing client that can access among others the KaZaA network, with the right plugins; it has a host of different UIs and a single backend. It would be nice to see more programs like that.

Moll.

but I can give my thumbs up towards Liferea on Linux. Straw is also good if for some reason Liferea isn't to your liking.

I found a nice Windows reader called rssbandit that I setup for a few people while doing Windows installs recently. They seemed to like it.

I have no experience with OS/X, so I can't put a vote towards anything there. The Linux apps are gtk based and the Windows app is a dotNet programmed app.

FeedReader is my current favorite. Open souce and light, no .NET overhead.
I have tried RSSOwl Open source, cross-platform, so OSX also, but Java, so a little topheavy;
There's also Abilon, Pluck (both are Non-Open Source, but free).

I've yeat to find one with all the features I like, but Feedreader has been working for me quite well.

Yes!

Liferea has a clean gnome2 interface and supports atom.. I like it.

I also use Forumzilla from Thunderbird. Opera supports rss directly in its mail client.

Don't forget, next year when OSEX X.IV comes out, it will come with Safari 2.0, which includes an RSS reader.

Otherwise, there are plenty of projects on Sauceforge and Virgintracker. Go try some of them out.

One of the iPods must have iPodLinux installed, which should include firewire support, as well as SBP2 support. Compile this as a module, and then connect the two iPods together with the Sendstation Pocketdock if they are 3G, or just a regular 6pin to 6pin FW cable if they are 1st or 2nd generation. Put the other iPod into firewire disk mode, and the one running linux should be able to mount it and access the files. This is incredibly impractical, as typing on the iPod requires turning the scroll wheel until the right character appears (incredibly annoying), and also very slow. However, it just goes to show that it _is_ possible for iPods to share files with just minimal extra hardware.

The parent post is modded funny, but what the poster said is true. DOS programs running on Windows XP run on top of a DOS emulator, and on Linux, you could run those same programs using DOSBox, an arguably more complete emulator than the one included in Windows.

I run UltimateTracker on dosBox, which is really easy to install and works usually better than windows' DOS emulation.

Aha - working now - I think it was the redirector to sourceforge you have.

I dislike NVU, and I don't believe that Quanta is a WYSIWYG editor. I've never heard of bluefish, and I'll have to give it a try.
Well, Bluefish is probably as WYSIWYH as Quanta--easily plugin a browser. If you don't like quanta, you might not like bluefish. Peacock is pretty good too.

You can use the ALSA drivers for your 1010, and use Ardour for the mixing/recording...
As for the VST stuff, you can use LADSPA, with Ardour's built-in host architecture, or you can use JACK Rack.
All this is connected together with the JACK Audio Connection Kit, a low-latency sound server.
It works just as well as the win32 solution.

You can use the ALSA drivers for your 1010, and use Ardour for the mixing/recording...
As for the VST stuff, you can use LADSPA, with Ardour's built-in host architecture, or you can use JACK Rack.
All this is connected together with the JACK Audio Connection Kit, a low-latency sound server.
It works just as well as the win32 solution.

Clickable URLS:
SF.net: SourceForge Project
Corporate site: SugarCRM.com
Demo: Demo

Check out spamdam. It does that but forwards them your main account so you can disable addresses that are no longer useful. It has a nice web interface for managing aliases. I use it all the time and it's great. [/plug]

> telnet slashdot.org 80

Telnet isn't lean and mean! You should use netcat when not actually connecting to a telnet server. :P

"The same methods that are used today in bayesian spam filtering could be used to sort my mail into folders for me."