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Apt and Yum seem to be the main software update mechanisms in use at the moment on Linux, but both seem to require you to download the entire application or library that you're updating.

My situation means that I'm stuck with a dialup connection for much of the time. I use Debian (etch/testing).

The most frustrating thing that I find with apt is that it's necessary to re-download the entire package list simply to find out what packages have been updated. If you like to subscribe to two sections (eg. I get both testing and unstable for a few packages that I want more recent), that's a good 45 minutes of downloading new package lists just to have the lists up-to-date... it's very offputting if I really only want to update a 200k package. And if you let them go stale for a few days before actually downloading/installing any updated packages, there's a more and more significant chance that some packages will have been updated further with the listed files having disappeared from the repository... requiring yet another apt-get update to find out what the filenames for the new versions are. (Often it's easier to just go to http://packages.debian.org/ and download them directly, but this defeats the purpose of actually having apt.)

A straightforward solution to this would be to support and provide diffs for package lists. Even if they were only left on the servers for a few days, it'd be easy enough to make sure I updated every few days. I note that this has actually been listed as a feature request since January 2002 , but has unfortunately not been implemented (although it looks like there's now a patch being developed, which is promising). Using something like rsync (eg. via apt-rsync is also an option. It requires the mirror site to support rsync, though, which many don't. Also if lots of people suddenly used rsync to update package lists, I think those mirrors that do support it would stop very quickly, simply due to the CPU load that rsync puts on the server.

Diffs for actual package updates would be great, but I don't find the lack of them to be anywhere near as annoying as not having diffs for package lists, simply because I don't usually care about updating the majority of packages to be most up-to-date. Package lists, however, have to be updated frequently, irrespective of the size of the package actually wanted.

Just thinking about it now, it'd be nice if apt could more clearly indicate which packages need to be updated for an upstream release, versus those where the package maintainer has simply made a minor adjustment somewhere. eg. If I have openoffice.org 1.1.2-7 installed, then I really don't care about downloading 40-50MB to "upgrade" to openoffice.org 1.1.2-9, but I might care if it was going to 1.1.4-3, because that's a much more significant jump. That's something I can cope without for now, though.

This is very visible in the outdoor areas.

Doom 3? Outdoor areas? Huh?

While it's true Doom 3 has a more robust engine, HL2 has much better looking textures and character models. This isn't as much due to the engine as it is the effort of the artists. Half Life 2 tries for photorealism while Doom 3 has blocky models with bland textures. Look at the Character Comparison Shot here to see the difference. And all Doom 3 has shown so far is that its engine can render dark laboratories and dark office buildings. We're going to have to wait for either an exceptional mod or a new game using the engine to see how pretty it is when the lights are on. I'm not sure if Quake IV is going to accomplish this, given the Quake series's tendency to take place in brown, gothic, industrial locales. Apparently, Quake IV is going to be rather dark as well. I hope it isn't a new trend.

The ECE torrent is available, alongside direct downloads provided by BeyondUnreal.

Not clear enough? How about this from Blue's News?

The pack is an 84 MB download, available on 3D Gamers, FileFront, and GameSpot DLX (registration required), Gameguru Mania, Gamer's Hell, Game's Fusion, Tiscali Games, and Worthplaying.

Personally I don't see the big whoop. Although I hope I'm still alive when the gameplay itself has graphics like that of the cinematics in these game movies. Remember the trailer at the beginning of Quake 3: Arena? I nearly shite myself a the thought of gameplay someday being that detailed and intense. Will it ever?

1. Doom3_PCVersion-E3-Traile.rar
2. doom3.zip
3. Doom3-E32003-PCTrailer.zip
4. doom_3-e32003-full_video-hires.zip
5. doom_3-e32003-full_video-hires.avi 6. doom_3-e32003-full_video-hires.zip
7. doom_3-e32003-full_video-hires.zip
8. doom_3-e32003-full_video-hires.zip
9. doom_3-e32003-full_video-lores.zip
10. doom_3-e32003-full_video-lores.zip
11. doom_3-e32003-full_video-lores.zip

1. Doom3_PCVersion-E3-Traile.rar
2. doom3.zip
3. Doom3-E32003-PCTrailer.zip
4. doom_3-e32003-full_video-hires.zip
5. doom_3-e32003-full_video-hires.avi 6. doom_3-e32003-full_video-hires.zip
7. doom_3-e32003-full_video-hires.zip
8. doom_3-e32003-full_video-hires.zip
9. doom_3-e32003-full_video-lores.zip
10. doom_3-e32003-full_video-lores.zip
11. doom_3-e32003-full_video-lores.zip

Alternatively, Tiscali has a pretty fast mirror; I've been getting 90KB/Sec from them from the U.S. East Coast...

Have fun!!