The need for all the different systems is simple:
Game companies are too stupid and backwards to see the need to port anything to Linux / Mac.
I am not a game developer, however, I know a couple. They say that there is absolutely no reason to write anything in DirectX at all! OpenGL for graphics (open & extensible) and SDL for things like simple input, openAL for audio (3d or non) and bam! You have a cross-platform video game.
Cedega, dxwine, wine, Crossover, all of these scratch a particular itch -
running code that was designed for Windows in a Linux / UNIX environment.
Cedega's claim to fame is that it is the most compatible, and they have deals with the copy protection companies to allow for copy-protected-game x to work under Linux. That is why it is not completely free (speech or beer, probably).
dxwine is patches to the free winehq version that allow you to run DirectX applications on Linux, without any of the non-free-as-in-freedom worries.
wine is the official winehq version of wine that can run some stuff but not nearly as much as say, Cedega.
Crossover is aimed at the business set, running Quickbooks and Office through a pay-for version of winehq's set.
But to answer your main question: because it is hard to do well. Emulation alone is difficult enough - figuring out the instruction set of a processor that might not be around anymore is hard, now imagine if you had to re-implement all the crap in the Windows\System32 directory to understand where all the Linux shared libraries were and what they did. A *lot* harder.
-Nick
But what makes you think XBox 1 emulation will use all three cores? Of the CPU? Doubtful. It makes more sense to think that, since Xbox 1 ran all games off a single loop (like everyone else) that there will only be one core in major use. Even if they thread up emulation, then they are just making it so that emulation does not use as much of the GPU or the sound processor. That would be kind of strange.
I have often wondered how much *worse* XBox 1 games will play / look due to the hard-to-avoid massive drops in framerate due to emulation.
Microsoft is really just screwing up across the board...
-Nick
I don't see how it will look better unless they say across the board "OK. For all XBox 1 emulation, set up more powerful anti-aliasing. We also want our system-selling games to ship with new art." Those are both quite doubtful. Depending on how *fast* their emulation is, it might play better (have a better framerate), but since it is on a completely different architecture and will not be recompiled, I sincerely doubt it. No matter how fast the POWER cores are, any architecture sucks at emulating a different architecture (well, relatively modern architecture, anyway).
But also, the free XBox Live subscription that comes with the 360 will *not* allow you to play online....
http://www.gamepro.com/microsoft/xbox360/games/fea tures/45261.shtml/
Quote: "Unfortunately, you won't be able to regularly play multiplayer games using the Silver Tier plan"
Sorry, Charlie.
-Nick
I can't comment on why your network sucks, but as for the display configuration and new mouse thing...
You shouldn't have to mess with xorg.conf for new mice anymore. Unless SuSe is about 10 years behind other distributions, this is autodetected. Are you using a mouse that is not serial, PS/2 or USB?
For the display, well, it depends - sometimes it autodetects if you pop in a new one, sometimes not. If you are just changing resolution/color amount, the X R and R (Resize and Rotate) extension to XOrg allows for that. There is even a Python GUI thing in Redhat's GNOME and a different program in KControl and in Ubuntu's GNOME.
Odd. Or perhaps, it is because they do not wish for you to bring in random hardware that you do not have permission to make those changes automatically or programatically....
-Nick
That system, while in jest (perhaps), sounds just like the original 3 Leisure Suit Larry games. They would ask you a series of questions only an "adult" would know, like past president's blunders, etc. If you got three wrong in LSL1 VGA, you were kicked out of the game. In number 3, the sex/nudity level was toned down for every wrong answer. It was a pretty funny system - although ineffectual.
>Just today I saw KDE goes wild on an SLES9SP2 system and nearly freeze it - the same >fucking thing that used to happen back in 2000. Five years past by and not much has >changed.
Who was talking about KDE? If you are running a mailserver, there is no need for such eyecandy. Why not install in CLI mode only. On the other hand, if you don't like KDE, why not try GNOME? Both are lightyears ahead of the Windows GUI as far as really weird flaky disasters. Windows people crack me up.
>You need directory services, scheduling, global address book, forms and sophisticated IMAP >folder sharing even in a very small company (100 employees), so even in small-and-medium >enterprises, people do need Exchange-like functionality and not only SMTP/IMAP/Webmail. >Dovecot: it's in alpha, for Christ's sake (http://www.dovecot.org/)
Did you even check out zimbra.com? 1) Directory Services - OpenLDAP. 2) Scheduling - Handled with iCal 3) Global Address Book - again, OpenLDAP 4) Forms - ? 5) Sophisticated IMAP folder sharing - I could not find which IMAP server they were using, but if it complies to the spec, should be taken care of. About Dovecot - so what if it's alpha? I have run many programs over the years which are pre-alpha quality (hint: it's mostly from a company in Redmond).
>1. Software for managing AD: not really that expensive. On Linux you need to spend as much >to write and maintain custom scripts, Webforms and what not.
Pretty much evens out, you're right. Unless someone has written the scripts you need already. Ah, the power of open-source.
>2. Backup software: yes, because Exchange has its internal database format (i.e. it does >not use only flat files). You can't back that up without suspending I/O to a consistent >state which means you have to have an application-side plugin.
You say it yourself: Exchange blows. Having a proprietary database format is silly when dealing with e-mail. Why not use flat files - oh! I know! So they can keep your data hostage.
>3. LVM: can't create crash-consistent snapshots of database files so what you say is >incorrect, unless you meant snapshots of ordinary IMAP directories (incorrect comparison - >database format vs. flat files). Besides, if you have VSS H/W Provider agent on Exchange >server, you can take snapshots (on storage or the server itself), re-mount them and backup >them using the regular Windows software.
LVM won't need to rely on snapshots of database files... are you even trying at this point? It is an incorrect comparison. Correct. You can do this thing you mention in the second sentence, but why bother? Wouldn't you rather get on with admining rather than setting up hacks and workarounds to Exchange and Windows' many problems?
On another tangent, why can't Microsoft make server software that works? Bah! The pain of having to work with non-standards compliant products.
Because NFS is *fast*. At least across *nix boxes. Case in point, I was sharing music across my network, and have a Mythtv box. The Mythtv box builds a database of information found in the ID3 tags. Using Samba, for 60GB of music, this took 1.5+ hours. When I rebuilt the box, I decided to try NFS. Now the database only took 1.5 minutes to build. There is quite an advantage to using NFS.
I am not sure if it performs this well under Windows, but SMB/CIFS is pretty much busted compared to it.
on the gov'ts part. It sounds like they want to use "terrorism" as an excuse to start regulating content on the 'net.
We all knew it could not last forever, and fear is always the impetus for change.
We fear the impending terrorist attacks that we have been told to expect any and every day now, just so that they can keep us living in fear and pass horrific bills *cough Patriot Act cough* that remove our freedoms.
Grandia is a series made by a company called Game Arts and published by SEGA (Grandia I) and Ubisoft (Grandia II). Grandia is in no way affiliated with Square-Enix.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandia
AAC does hold up pretty well... but if you notice in the multi-codec test, Vorbis kicks its butt all over the place. I have never heard of the version of Vorbis they are using, though. I use the standard xiph.org one.
13-16 hours is nice if I have it plugged into speakers or a stereo and I don't have the power adapter with me, and am working overnight or something. I have worked all-nighters where it ran out of juice - which is why I know how long it lasts. On the iRiver website, it shows that they have 16 hours, but over the past year, my battery appears to have degraded a little.
I think it has more to do with the copious amounts of advertising (and media attention) that the iPod receives. Its feature set is lacking, but the scroll wheel is a treat!
However, the iPod's interface, like any interface, takes time to understand and use effectively. The XClef also has a weird interface with a switch on the side to move up and down instead of the joystick that the iHP-100 series have.
iRiver have changed this in their newest version of the hard disk multi-media jukebox, and they use something different (my friend has one but I have never witnessed directory traversal on it).
So, my question, did you see the new (color) iRiver hard disk players, or the old 100 series joystick dealies?
H) You didn't mention the quality of the software you use. That's a big reason behind why I chose an iPod - iTunes is just so much nicer than MusicMatch and the like.
Ah, sorry about that. I use XMMS or Kaffeine or mplayer or Winamp depending on the OS and what I happen to be doing.
As far as one that categorizes for you if you don't feel like organizing your music in a directory structure that makes sense, I have always liked Rythmbox.
Oh, and G is not a dupe of A because I did not mention the other codecs in A. I agree I could have streamlined there, though:-)
As far as D goes, no I was not aware that the iPod showed up as a mas-storage device. I thought I remembered hearing that you had to use iTunes to see the data on your iPod. But I have also heard that you could store other data on it besides music, so that would refute what I had heard before. Sorry! My fault!
But seriously, have you not taken the listening test on vorbis.com? It really sounds a lot better, plus vorbis has a great feature set - for example, if you are streaming vorbis music files, the server can adjust the bit-rate on the fly to conserve bandwidth, the songs sound closer to the source material than other codecs, no one can be pissed that you encoded your media with a free and open codec either.
I was listening to an audio book encoded in Vorbis one day, and I could not tell the difference between the source CD and the.ogg, even though the.ogg was encoded at a very low bitrate (it got down to 3k at some points, not that there is much range to someone reading out loud.).
Glad to hear they improved the battery life! I hear the minis are really bad about this, though (friend of mine has a mini that lasts less than 4 hours playing mp3s.)
I find that, for the money, the iRiver is a much better player and has many more features.
I have an iHP-140, and the things it has built-in that a standard 40GB iPod does not have are:
A) Vorbis support - the best (in my audiophile and freedom-loving opinion) lossy format! http://vorbis.com/ MP3s distort the high and low end a *lot*. Makes songs sound awful. But everyone loves.mp3 for some reason... weird.
B) FM tuner - Not that I *listen* to the radio
C) Built in recording support as either.wav or.mp3 - and the ability to use an external mike.
D) Shows up as a USB Mass-storage device on every operating system - so you don't need any crappy proprietary software to get access to *your* data! Besides, you have music players and jukeboxes on your machine already, right?
E) Long battery life - mine lasts 13 - 16 hours playing 256K vorbis files, after owning it for more than a year.
F?) Not sure if iPod has this, but optical output as well as analog. Awesome sound quality.
G) Other codec support -.wav,.wma,.ogg,.mp3.
Check it out if you are thinking of buying a music player - http://www.iriveramerica.com/
Also check out the XClef, who's main feature is that it has a *lot* of storage space. The largest I have seen was 100GB. Disadvantage is that it is shaped like 1/2 of a brick.
http://xclef.com/pro03_e.htm This is the up to, apparently, 137GB model.
-Nick
Yeah, we were originally recording using a different box with Linux and ardour under Redhat 9 with the planetccrma low-latency kernel. That crashed a lot, so we tried in the same box running win2k with software recommended by the soundcard manufacturer - awful skips.
Then we switched to another machine, hyperthreaded p4 with winXP and the recommended software again - no dice.
So finally, we switched to stock ubuntu with ardour and jackd installed - and it works! This is yet a third box, and all of them had different hard drive setups.
Blargh! I love digital recording when it works, though!
This was an interesting machine, until I got to the video out port. Not only do they not include a VGA or DVI port on the back, but they make you buy a dongle if you want video out to a monitor! That is really the only bad thing I have to say about this, as it will run Ubuntu! http://ubuntu.com/
That's awesome, and EXACTLY what my band is doing right now. We are getting strange.5-1 second skips in our recordings on and off and have tried using different processors, software, and operating systems (The most reliable combination for us has been jackd and ardour on ubuntu, but it still occasionally skips). So hard disk bandwidth is the cause...
Bottlenecks, bottlenecks everywhere, and not a drop to drink!
Why not use dosbox? http://dosbox.sf.net[sourceforge.net] It will allow you to play all of your old favorites on Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD, etc. Remember to increase the emulated CPU speed to make those newer (Quest for Glory 4) games work properly!
Slashdot Mirror
The need for all the different systems is simple: Game companies are too stupid and backwards to see the need to port anything to Linux / Mac. I am not a game developer, however, I know a couple. They say that there is absolutely no reason to write anything in DirectX at all! OpenGL for graphics (open & extensible) and SDL for things like simple input, openAL for audio (3d or non) and bam! You have a cross-platform video game. Cedega, dxwine, wine, Crossover, all of these scratch a particular itch - running code that was designed for Windows in a Linux / UNIX environment. Cedega's claim to fame is that it is the most compatible, and they have deals with the copy protection companies to allow for copy-protected-game x to work under Linux. That is why it is not completely free (speech or beer, probably). dxwine is patches to the free winehq version that allow you to run DirectX applications on Linux, without any of the non-free-as-in-freedom worries. wine is the official winehq version of wine that can run some stuff but not nearly as much as say, Cedega. Crossover is aimed at the business set, running Quickbooks and Office through a pay-for version of winehq's set. But to answer your main question: because it is hard to do well. Emulation alone is difficult enough - figuring out the instruction set of a processor that might not be around anymore is hard, now imagine if you had to re-implement all the crap in the Windows\System32 directory to understand where all the Linux shared libraries were and what they did. A *lot* harder. -Nick
But what makes you think XBox 1 emulation will use all three cores? Of the CPU? Doubtful. It makes more sense to think that, since Xbox 1 ran all games off a single loop (like everyone else) that there will only be one core in major use. Even if they thread up emulation, then they are just making it so that emulation does not use as much of the GPU or the sound processor. That would be kind of strange. I have often wondered how much *worse* XBox 1 games will play / look due to the hard-to-avoid massive drops in framerate due to emulation. Microsoft is really just screwing up across the board... -Nick
I don't see how it will look better unless they say across the board "OK. For all XBox 1 emulation, set up more powerful anti-aliasing. We also want our system-selling games to ship with new art." Those are both quite doubtful. Depending on how *fast* their emulation is, it might play better (have a better framerate), but since it is on a completely different architecture and will not be recompiled, I sincerely doubt it. No matter how fast the POWER cores are, any architecture sucks at emulating a different architecture (well, relatively modern architecture, anyway). But also, the free XBox Live subscription that comes with the 360 will *not* allow you to play online.... http://www.gamepro.com/microsoft/xbox360/games/fea tures/45261.shtml/
Quote: "Unfortunately, you won't be able to regularly play multiplayer games using the Silver Tier plan"
Sorry, Charlie.
-Nick
I can't comment on why your network sucks, but as for the display configuration and new mouse thing... You shouldn't have to mess with xorg.conf for new mice anymore. Unless SuSe is about 10 years behind other distributions, this is autodetected. Are you using a mouse that is not serial, PS/2 or USB? For the display, well, it depends - sometimes it autodetects if you pop in a new one, sometimes not. If you are just changing resolution/color amount, the X R and R (Resize and Rotate) extension to XOrg allows for that. There is even a Python GUI thing in Redhat's GNOME and a different program in KControl and in Ubuntu's GNOME. Odd. Or perhaps, it is because they do not wish for you to bring in random hardware that you do not have permission to make those changes automatically or programatically.... -Nick
Did you notice how much this interface looked like AmaroK? http://amarok.kde.org/index.php?set_albumName=albu m03&id=07_G&option=com_gallery&Itemid=60&include=v iew_photo.php
That system, while in jest (perhaps), sounds just like the original 3 Leisure Suit Larry games.
They would ask you a series of questions only an "adult" would know, like past president's blunders, etc.
If you got three wrong in LSL1 VGA, you were kicked out of the game. In number 3, the sex/nudity level was toned down for every wrong answer. It was a pretty funny system - although ineffectual.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure_Suit_Larry/
Those games were pretty funny! Oh, that Al Lowe!
Wow, that is a bunch of incorrect assumptions!
>Just today I saw KDE goes wild on an SLES9SP2 system and nearly freeze it - the same >fucking thing that used to happen back in 2000. Five years past by and not much has >changed.
Who was talking about KDE? If you are running a mailserver, there is no need for such eyecandy. Why not install in CLI mode only. On the other hand, if you don't like KDE, why not try GNOME? Both are lightyears ahead of the Windows GUI as far as really weird flaky disasters. Windows people crack me up.
>You need directory services, scheduling, global address book, forms and sophisticated IMAP >folder sharing even in a very small company (100 employees), so even in small-and-medium >enterprises, people do need Exchange-like functionality and not only SMTP/IMAP/Webmail.
>Dovecot: it's in alpha, for Christ's sake (http://www.dovecot.org/)
Did you even check out zimbra.com?
1) Directory Services - OpenLDAP.
2) Scheduling - Handled with iCal
3) Global Address Book - again, OpenLDAP
4) Forms - ?
5) Sophisticated IMAP folder sharing - I could not find which IMAP server they were using, but if it complies to the spec, should be taken care of.
About Dovecot - so what if it's alpha? I have run many programs over the years which are pre-alpha quality (hint: it's mostly from a company in Redmond).
>1. Software for managing AD: not really that expensive. On Linux you need to spend as much >to write and maintain custom scripts, Webforms and what not.
Pretty much evens out, you're right. Unless someone has written the scripts you need already. Ah, the power of open-source.
>2. Backup software: yes, because Exchange has its internal database format (i.e. it does >not use only flat files). You can't back that up without suspending I/O to a consistent >state which means you have to have an application-side plugin.
You say it yourself: Exchange blows. Having a proprietary database format is silly when dealing with e-mail. Why not use flat files - oh! I know! So they can keep your data hostage.
>3. LVM: can't create crash-consistent snapshots of database files so what you say is >incorrect, unless you meant snapshots of ordinary IMAP directories (incorrect comparison - >database format vs. flat files). Besides, if you have VSS H/W Provider agent on Exchange >server, you can take snapshots (on storage or the server itself), re-mount them and backup >them using the regular Windows software.
LVM won't need to rely on snapshots of database files... are you even trying at this point?
It is an incorrect comparison. Correct. You can do this thing you mention in the second sentence, but why bother? Wouldn't you rather get on with admining rather than setting up hacks and workarounds to Exchange and Windows' many problems?
On another tangent, why can't Microsoft make server software that works?
Bah! The pain of having to work with non-standards compliant products.
-Nick
Because NFS is *fast*. At least across *nix boxes. Case in point, I was sharing music across my network, and have a Mythtv box. The Mythtv box builds a database of information found in the ID3 tags. Using Samba, for 60GB of music, this took 1.5+ hours. When I rebuilt the box, I decided to try NFS. Now the database only took 1.5 minutes to build. There is quite an advantage to using NFS.
I am not sure if it performs this well under Windows, but SMB/CIFS is pretty much busted compared to it.
on the gov'ts part. It sounds like they want to use "terrorism" as an excuse to start regulating content on the 'net. We all knew it could not last forever, and fear is always the impetus for change. We fear the impending terrorist attacks that we have been told to expect any and every day now, just so that they can keep us living in fear and pass horrific bills *cough Patriot Act cough* that remove our freedoms.
Grandia is a series made by a company called Game Arts and published by SEGA (Grandia I) and Ubisoft (Grandia II). Grandia is in no way affiliated with Square-Enix. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandia
AAC does hold up pretty well... but if you notice in the multi-codec test, Vorbis kicks its butt all over the place. I have never heard of the version of Vorbis they are using, though. I use the standard xiph.org one.
13-16 hours is nice if I have it plugged into speakers or a stereo and I don't have the power adapter with me, and am working overnight or something. I have worked all-nighters where it ran out of juice - which is why I know how long it lasts. On the iRiver website, it shows that they have 16 hours, but over the past year, my battery appears to have degraded a little.
Nice! I guess mileage does vary. Perhaps my friend has a bad battery...
I think it has more to do with the copious amounts of advertising (and media attention) that the iPod receives. Its feature set is lacking, but the scroll wheel is a treat!
However, the iPod's interface, like any interface, takes time to understand and use effectively. The XClef also has a weird interface with a switch on the side to move up and down instead of the joystick that the iHP-100 series have.
iRiver have changed this in their newest version of the hard disk multi-media jukebox, and they use something different (my friend has one but I have never witnessed directory traversal on it).
So, my question, did you see the new (color) iRiver hard disk players, or the old 100 series joystick dealies?
Ah, sorry about that. I use XMMS or Kaffeine or mplayer or Winamp depending on the OS and what I happen to be doing.
As far as one that categorizes for you if you don't feel like organizing your music in a directory structure that makes sense, I have always liked Rythmbox.
Oh, and G is not a dupe of A because I did not mention the other codecs in A. I agree I could have streamlined there, though
As far as D goes, no I was not aware that the iPod showed up as a mas-storage device. I thought I remembered hearing that you had to use iTunes to see the data on your iPod. But I have also heard that you could store other data on it besides music, so that would refute what I had heard before. Sorry! My fault!
But seriously, have you not taken the listening test on vorbis.com? It really sounds a lot better, plus vorbis has a great feature set - for example, if you are streaming vorbis music files, the server can adjust the bit-rate on the fly to conserve bandwidth, the songs sound closer to the source material than other codecs, no one can be pissed that you encoded your media with a free and open codec either.
I was listening to an audio book encoded in Vorbis one day, and I could not tell the difference between the source CD and the
Glad to hear they improved the battery life! I hear the minis are really bad about this, though (friend of mine has a mini that lasts less than 4 hours playing mp3s.)
I find that, for the money, the iRiver is a much better player and has many more features. I have an iHP-140, and the things it has built-in that a standard 40GB iPod does not have are: A) Vorbis support - the best (in my audiophile and freedom-loving opinion) lossy format! http://vorbis.com/ MP3s distort the high and low end a *lot*. Makes songs sound awful. But everyone loves .mp3 for some reason... weird.
B) FM tuner - Not that I *listen* to the radio
C) Built in recording support as either .wav or .mp3 - and the ability to use an external mike.
D) Shows up as a USB Mass-storage device on every operating system - so you don't need any crappy proprietary software to get access to *your* data! Besides, you have music players and jukeboxes on your machine already, right?
E) Long battery life - mine lasts 13 - 16 hours playing 256K vorbis files, after owning it for more than a year.
F?) Not sure if iPod has this, but optical output as well as analog. Awesome sound quality.
G) Other codec support - .wav, .wma, .ogg, .mp3.
Check it out if you are thinking of buying a music player - http://www.iriveramerica.com/
Also check out the XClef, who's main feature is that it has a *lot* of storage space. The largest I have seen was 100GB. Disadvantage is that it is shaped like 1/2 of a brick.
http://xclef.com/pro03_e.htm This is the up to, apparently, 137GB model.
-Nick
Yeah, we were originally recording using a different box with Linux and ardour under Redhat 9 with the planetccrma low-latency kernel. That crashed a lot, so we tried in the same box running win2k with software recommended by the soundcard manufacturer - awful skips. Then we switched to another machine, hyperthreaded p4 with winXP and the recommended software again - no dice. So finally, we switched to stock ubuntu with ardour and jackd installed - and it works! This is yet a third box, and all of them had different hard drive setups. Blargh! I love digital recording when it works, though!
This was an interesting machine, until I got to the video out port. Not only do they not include a VGA or DVI port on the back, but they make you buy a dongle if you want video out to a monitor! That is really the only bad thing I have to say about this, as it will run Ubuntu! http://ubuntu.com/
packing bitches in my Chevy and a clip in my 'gat.
That's awesome, and EXACTLY what my band is doing right now. We are getting strange .5-1 second skips in our recordings on and off and have tried using different processors, software, and operating systems (The most reliable combination for us has been jackd and ardour on ubuntu, but it still occasionally skips). So hard disk bandwidth is the cause...
Bottlenecks, bottlenecks everywhere, and not a drop to drink!
Dear BewireNomali,
We are on the way to pick you up. Stay right there.
- the BSA
Why not use dosbox?t will allow you to play all of your old favorites on Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD, etc.
http://dosbox.sf.net[sourceforge.net]
I
Remember to increase the emulated CPU speed to make those newer (Quest for Glory 4) games work properly!
>GBA Legend of Zelda
>description of Samus' ship
Wow, which Zelda game were you playing?!?!
>Even Katamari Damacy could be argued to fall under a patent like that. Or one as generic as collision detection in a video game. Scary!