Ditto. I'd say that the last few I've submitted have been rejected. Frankly, I thought they were well-written submissions as well...
* 2006-08-04 15:10:52 Linux Game Publishing Releases Cold War for Linux. (Index,PC Games (Games)) (rejected)
* 2006-05-30 18:17:50 LGP Announces Release of X2: The Threat (Games,Space) (rejected)
Pretty sad too. Both are excellent titles. Guess people are too wrapped up in making Cedega work to be playing Linux games.
Slight correction. I meant "DOOM 3" rather than "Quake 3". Though I guess that Q3 is available for download as well (in addition to the source code being GPL'd).
LGP has stepped in to fill the void that Loki left. In fact, they've already outlasted Loki and still appear to be pushing on, and several of their games are excellent.
The author misses a few critical points when he looks at Linux games. First, many companies are porting in-house rather than having a third party do the work. Often, these binaries are downloadable from the companies website rather than shipping them on the CD (Quake 3, Neverwinter Nights, Darwinia, etc.). Also - Sometimes things take time. I wouldn't say that Linux gaming is "worse", but is perhaps "different" than it was when Loki was around. Companies are being cautious. Take a look at the slew of high-cost Activision games that Loki managed to score, only to run themselves into the ground. Think that there is perhaps a reason for their fall?
I don't believe that WINE is an appropriate alternative to having a dedicated Windows gaming system. But for those that casually game on Linux, or play more console games than Linux games, we can still find many excellent Linux games available without resorting to using WINE. I feel that the author's turn from discussing Loki ports to using WINE for gaming on Linux misses the bigger picture... Because it simply details his bad experience with using WINE for serious gaming. *NOT ONCE* was a modern native Linux game mentioned, and there are several games that are (in my opinion) MUCH BETTER than many of the Loki offerings. So, basically his gripe is about being unable to play Call of Duty on Linux. Good job on summing up how well a compatibility layer works instead of talking about real Linux games.
I must confess... It really pisses me off when I post announcements about legitimate Linux games from LGP and other companies, and Slashdot mods neglect to inform the community by rejecting the article, further perpetuating the cycle of "sucky Linux gaming" because people are ignorant of the games that *ARE* out there... Yet, crap like this ExtremeTech article manges to get front-page news. Good job mods!
That said, it's my understanding that LGP has a few AAA games coming up that will knock our socks off. Will they be ignored by the Slashdot crew like the last few great games were? I sure as hell hope not, because I'm sick of reading articles like this. IF YOU WANT MORE GAMES ON LINUX, STOP BEING LIKE THIS EXTREMETECH GUY AND BUY LINUX GAMES INSTEAD OF RESORTING TO WINE AND BITCHING ABOUT HOW IT DOESN'T WORK!
Agreed. I really tried to like the game. The setting and characters were original. The photography feature was interesting (at first). The story was above average, with some great plot twists. The voice acting even was quirky and fun. The problem with the game comes down to the most basic elements of gaming... Nothing about the gameplay was unique, particularly after the photography started to become more of a chore than anything else. Additionally, the game was tedious due to an excess of "fetch quests" for the silly pearls that allow you to progress in the game (to buy upgrades for your hoverboat). These two things alone can cripple even the best concepts for games. You generally find the "fetch quest" as a fall-back to a game without enough meat to really keep the game going. E.g. It's filler for the real stuff in the game.
It's a game that certainly had promise, but just ended up being tedious and rough around the edges... Just a bit more refinement could have made it a classic, but the lack of depth and polish ended up leaving us with a game that was just stretched too thin and then filled back out with "fetch quests" to make the game seem longer.
Remember the bogus claims that Sony made about the PS2? Even the dated Dreamcast outclassed it in most every way. Don't get me wrong. I like the PS2 and its games, but most of its bread and butter have been from third-party titles. The most recent exception is probably God of War, which is quite outstanding.
There is nothing saying that the strong third-party support that Sony had with the PSX and PS2 couldn't end up moving to the Wii or the 360, which will both be reasonably priced and offer all the performance that is needed in a game console right now. Remember when "Big N" got cocky after two generations of success? Everyone jumped ship to Sony. It wouldn't surprise me if we see things shift a bit with this next round of consoles.
I've been forcing myself to play "Warrior Within" off and on for about two months now. It just doesn't hold my interests. The game is, frankly, kinda boring. The music is absolutely terrible (especially when compared to the first game); consisting mostly of poor ambient tunes with the occasional eastern flair, backed by really bad Godsmack metal tracks. The dialog is almost always terrible, with only a few better parts by the two main characters. The game is crippled by all sorts of glitches and audio skipping bugs on *all* platforms.
That said, I'm still sticking with it. It's not the worst game I've ever played, but it hardly comes close to the first title. It's just such a big disappointment on almost all levels except for an improved graphics engine and combat mechanics. At $20, it's probably a decent value (I suppose).
I have high hopes for "The Two Thrones". I suspect that it will correct a lot of the problems of the second title.
I'm a big fan of Magnatune. There is some excellent music on their site. All of the 128k MP3s are available under a Creative Commons license. They have FLAC/OGG/AAC/WAV/VBR MP3s available for those who pay for the CDs. You can license all of music at very reasonable prices for commercial use. They even *encourage* you to share your downloaded CDs with friends. You can choose how much you want to pay for all of the music, but since 50% of the money goes directly to the artist; it makes it more worthwhile to pay a reasonable amount for the music (I pay what I'd pay for a CD in a store, since it's lossless FLAC files that I download).
I think that the $40 is a bit silly, considering that they advertise it as a "free phone adapter" (it's not free if you have to pay for it). It would appear that it is detailed in their terms of service though.
I doubt that they really even reuse these things. It would be more likely that they use it as another way to milk $40 from a customer before they drop the service. Kinda shady, but I guess we have to read the fine print.
My only complaint about Vonage is that their rented exchanges don't always have the same capabilities.
I just signed up, and while they advertise the ability to transfer (port) landline and cellphone numbers to their service, they happened to put me on an exchange (owned by McLeod) that can only accept landline number transfers. It's a bit annoying because I just made a $50 cellphone payment that could have been avoided if they had all of their stuff in order. My number even passed the number "test" on their web page, but took them two weeks to tell me that the transfer was impossible (due to their exchange's limitations).
It's something to be aware of when folks sign up for Vonage service. The LNP transfer is ofter a tedious process, and not all of their providers have the same capabilities. They do *not* tell you this until after you already sign up.
Otherwise, the service seems to be quite reliable and sounds great. It has boatloads of excellent features and should provide a nice bridge between IP and POTS communication.
"Its been said here before and I will say it again."
This is not correct. You do not have to make your program "free software" simply because it links against LGPL software. GTK+2/GLIB are LGPL.
From the homepage:
GTK+ is free software and part of the GNU Project. However, the licensing terms for GTK+, the GNU LGPL, allow it to be used by all developers, including those developing proprietary software, without any license fees or royalties.
Actually, Nintendo didn't say that it would be "incapable" of "HD resolutions". They said that they had "no plans" to support it officially.
"It is accurate that at this time we will not support high-definition [on Revolution]," Kaplan told IGN.com.
It's really hard to tell what will happen by the time it's released. The Gamecube is theoretically capable of 720p output, though the games only utilize 480p. Considering the video hardware that is being used, it's safe to assume that the Revolution is at least as capable as the Gamecube It's not going to matter all that much, because we're still going to be stuck with 480p DVD movies for a while. 480p is a form of SDTV. Even if it's not "HD", it's still much higher quality than any analog television. Your comment about the RCA analog television is grossly exaggerated.
And let's be honest... All three systems will have hardware that's paractically the same, regardless of these cracked out specs and numbers (ironic isn't it that all three are using what is essentiall a next-gen Gamecube with PowerPC and ATI graphics). What it will really boil down to is the games.
I own a Gamecube and several other more modern consoles.
In the end, I find that I spend the most time these days playing PC Engine (Tubro Grafx) games than anything else. It's nice to be able to pick a game up for 10 minutes and leave it at that... Then, come back later when I have time and have the exact same experience.
On the new consoles, the old formula still applies. I've been playing Ikaruga off and on for more than two years now. The classic formulae (shmups and 2d-style action titles) are timeless.
I find Linux font rendering to be very nice; better than Windows and even on par with OS X, but a lot of it is largely due to configuration and the videocard/monitor being used. This is a pretty lengthy reply, but I'd like to help people debunk the myth that Linux has "bad" font rendering. It's just that most distributions don't provide fonts and font renderers that function in the way many users might expect.
By default, all distributions (except for Debian, I believe) use the Autohinter instead of the Bytecode Interpreter, due to potential patent issues. They render in very different ways. The Autohinter looks pretty good on LCD displays, with its subpixel hinting (producing fonts that are better in my opinion than Windows Cleartype), but I prefer the Bytecode Interpreter on CRTs.
I'm not sure what you mean by "native" support for Linux fonts. All of the font rendering is handled through Libfreetype. You can compile Freetype to use either rendering method, but it defaults to the Autohinter. Freetype supports more than 11 different font formats. This includes standard scalable formats such as Truetype and Type 1 fonts.
Additionally, configuration can cause fonts to look bad. Some people don't like much antialiasing. They prefer the method that Windows uses to antialias only fonts greater than 12 points in size. A combination of the Bytecode Interpreter and disabling antialiasing for small fonts can produce font rendering that is similar to the rendering that most Windows users are familiar with.
If you disable antialiasing while using the Autohinter, you'll find that fonts look terribly uneven and jagged.... They're pretty ugly. If you want to disable antialiasing, you probably should do it only with the Bytecode Interpreter being used as the renderer. This will produce the results that you may be looking for if you prefer Windows-like font rendering.
Lastly, OpenOffice.org's builds have typically included internal Freetype libraries that don't particularly look pretty. There are some workarounds for this. I mention it in the following FAQ:
It's quite outdated, but may provide you with the information that you need to get the font rendering that you prefer. You may also want to try tracking down a package of the Microsoft Core Webfonts. They are legal to distribute as long as they are provided in the original EXE, which may be extract with cabextract. As an alternative, you may be able to find a custom build of OpenOffice.org for your favorite distribution, that links against your system's own freetype libraries instead of the internal OO.o Freetype libraries.
I wish that we had been able to take over the Dropline GNOME project a bit sooner. It was really a bad time for everything, and it took us several weeks to get up to speed to even get our first release together in time for Christmas of 2004. We weren't sure how we could pull it off, but all seems to have turned out well.
After several months of hard work, I believe that we've been able to put together one of the finest GNOME desktops available. In fact, we had a stable and smooth GNOME 2.10.1 release before anyone else. Future releases should be much more timely than our first 2.8 series releases.
We're quite proud of the results so far, and have a lot of plans to make our 2.12 releases even better. While Todd did an abolutely amazing job on Dropline GNOME for two years, a larger team seems to be able to do many things that a single maintainer cannot do alone. That said, his work was nothing short of amazing. It's no wonder that he bagan to experience so much burn-out after a while.
We do not publicize it very much, but we've been discussing the possibility of releasing a complete Linux distribution, sans KDE and a few server-side components, that can fit on one easy to install CD. Aside from some small changes that focus on improved usability, the intention would be to provide something as close to Slackware as possible while retaining all that is needed for a functional and usable GNOME desktop.
We love Slackware and believe in most of the principles that make it one of the finest distributions in existence. We feel that providing it, bundled with Dropline GNOME, completes some of the missing usability and desktop refinement issues that scare people away from it on the desktop. I feel that we can fill this missing gap, particularly now that GNOME is no longer part of the Slackware suite.
We want to make Linux available to everyone. While there is still a learning curve for Slackware, we feel that we can still make it usable for everyone while retaining flexibility for power-users. I think that Slackware is the best platform for that. Its simplicity is second to none.
I hope that some former Slackware+Dropline users will keep an eye out for what we have in store for the future. We will have a new website going up soon with even more focus on community interaction. This will likely include a user package repository as well. If you haven't tried our 2.10.x releases of Dropline GNOME yet, please give it a shot and let us know what we can do to improve it for you.:)
My college is still using ancient DOS versions of Orcad (because upgrades are too expensive for them)and an old B2 Logic (TTL logic simulator) that is pretty outdated. They get the job done though, when you just need to have basic circuit design and simulation programs.
Honestly, GPL circuit simulators are pretty good, and free. I've been able to pretty much do everything that I need to do with Oregano http://arrakis.gforge.lug.fi.uba.ar/index.php , a front-end to GNU Cap and ngSpice.
Agreed. Anyone who knows enough about the kernel to warrant a complaint about the kernel being "bloated" should simply build it on their own (that goes for Greenblatt and the goons at Computer Associates).
There is no reason that these "experts" can't tune a 2.6 series kernel to around 1 MB (maybe less). Kernels with modest support for lots of hardware are still around only 1.5 MB at best. Anyone complaining about it is simply talking out of their asses.
You don't want "game drivers and music drivers", then exclude them. There is no science to it. But I *want them* in my kernel, and many other people do as well.
Additionally, if Greenblatt and co. want more "enterprise features", they're certainly welcome to add time and money into developing these components.
This e-week article is misleading. It's not drawing "concern" for anybody, especially not the "open-source community". Computer Associates is not the "open-source community".
What you say is not possible. Linux will never stop "revolving" around the kernel, because (GNU/)Linux *IS* the kernel.
The other stuff, on top of it, is not.
I suppose that you didn't follow the link, and notice that it lists 2.10.1 as being proposed for a release next week? You likely didn't.
But, of course, you likely have more conclusive data than the info on the link that I posted... So, why not share it? After all... 2.10.1 wasn't officially announced *anywhere* on GNOME's site or mailing list, so there must be some "insider information" somewhere about its release.
ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/desktop/2.10/ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/platform/2.10/
You're a bright person.... Where is 2.10.1? It certainly isn't on the FTP site.
As far as I can tell, GNOME 2.10.1 isn't supposed to be released until next week... And that's just a proposed date:
http://live.gnome.org/TwoPointEleven
It is true though that there are several "2.10.1" tarballs out there, as bugfix releases for next week.
I must admit that the post in the changelog was a bit disheartening. I realize that we cannot make everyone happy, but there are some legitimate benefits to the things that are dubbed as "intrusive" by some. For instance, we are going to include an evdev patch in X11 that several users have asked for. There are little touches like this that you don't always see in Slackware, and we believe that they provide a better desktop experience for most users.
That said, in spite of the fact that I am one of many that works on Dropline GNOME, I'm very pleased to see that there are other alternatives for everyone. Each GNOME desktop for Slackware offers a unique experience and helps provide choices for Slackers (which has always been the mission of Dropline GNOME in the first place).
We will be releasing Dropline GNOME 2.10 within a few days. Currently, it is being BETA tested, but things are progressing well. It will be our first release that is built totally from the ground up, since we (the development team) took the project over from Todd back in Novemeber. We're really proud of our work.
In addition, I'd like to pay my respects to the other Slackware GNOME teams out there. Freerock (of GNOME.SlackBuild) frequents our IRC channel, and has been very kind in sharing some of his experiences with GNOME 2.10's (many) quirks. He's a very nice guy, and has a quality GNOME desktop. I've also visited the GWARE room on Freenode, and have found that they are also nice guys as well. They're also developing a quality desktop.
Slashdot Mirror
Pretty sad too. Both are excellent titles. Guess people are too wrapped up in making Cedega work to be playing Linux games.
Slight correction. I meant "DOOM 3" rather than "Quake 3". Though I guess that Q3 is available for download as well (in addition to the source code being GPL'd).
http://linuxgamepublishing.com/
LGP has stepped in to fill the void that Loki left. In fact, they've already outlasted Loki and still appear to be pushing on, and several of their games are excellent.
The author misses a few critical points when he looks at Linux games. First, many companies are porting in-house rather than having a third party do the work. Often, these binaries are downloadable from the companies website rather than shipping them on the CD (Quake 3, Neverwinter Nights, Darwinia, etc.). Also - Sometimes things take time. I wouldn't say that Linux gaming is "worse", but is perhaps "different" than it was when Loki was around. Companies are being cautious. Take a look at the slew of high-cost Activision games that Loki managed to score, only to run themselves into the ground. Think that there is perhaps a reason for their fall?
I don't believe that WINE is an appropriate alternative to having a dedicated Windows gaming system. But for those that casually game on Linux, or play more console games than Linux games, we can still find many excellent Linux games available without resorting to using WINE. I feel that the author's turn from discussing Loki ports to using WINE for gaming on Linux misses the bigger picture... Because it simply details his bad experience with using WINE for serious gaming. *NOT ONCE* was a modern native Linux game mentioned, and there are several games that are (in my opinion) MUCH BETTER than many of the Loki offerings. So, basically his gripe is about being unable to play Call of Duty on Linux. Good job on summing up how well a compatibility layer works instead of talking about real Linux games.
I must confess... It really pisses me off when I post announcements about legitimate Linux games from LGP and other companies, and Slashdot mods neglect to inform the community by rejecting the article, further perpetuating the cycle of "sucky Linux gaming" because people are ignorant of the games that *ARE* out there... Yet, crap like this ExtremeTech article manges to get front-page news. Good job mods!
That said, it's my understanding that LGP has a few AAA games coming up that will knock our socks off. Will they be ignored by the Slashdot crew like the last few great games were? I sure as hell hope not, because I'm sick of reading articles like this. IF YOU WANT MORE GAMES ON LINUX, STOP BEING LIKE THIS EXTREMETECH GUY AND BUY LINUX GAMES INSTEAD OF RESORTING TO WINE AND BITCHING ABOUT HOW IT DOESN'T WORK!
Agreed. I really tried to like the game. The setting and characters were original. The photography feature was interesting (at first). The story was above average, with some great plot twists. The voice acting even was quirky and fun. The problem with the game comes down to the most basic elements of gaming... Nothing about the gameplay was unique, particularly after the photography started to become more of a chore than anything else. Additionally, the game was tedious due to an excess of "fetch quests" for the silly pearls that allow you to progress in the game (to buy upgrades for your hoverboat). These two things alone can cripple even the best concepts for games. You generally find the "fetch quest" as a fall-back to a game without enough meat to really keep the game going. E.g. It's filler for the real stuff in the game. It's a game that certainly had promise, but just ended up being tedious and rough around the edges... Just a bit more refinement could have made it a classic, but the lack of depth and polish ended up leaving us with a game that was just stretched too thin and then filled back out with "fetch quests" to make the game seem longer.
Remember the bogus claims that Sony made about the PS2? Even the dated Dreamcast outclassed it in most every way. Don't get me wrong. I like the PS2 and its games, but most of its bread and butter have been from third-party titles. The most recent exception is probably God of War, which is quite outstanding.
There is nothing saying that the strong third-party support that Sony had with the PSX and PS2 couldn't end up moving to the Wii or the 360, which will both be reasonably priced and offer all the performance that is needed in a game console right now. Remember when "Big N" got cocky after two generations of success? Everyone jumped ship to Sony. It wouldn't surprise me if we see things shift a bit with this next round of consoles.
I've been forcing myself to play "Warrior Within" off and on for about two months now. It just doesn't hold my interests. The game is, frankly, kinda boring. The music is absolutely terrible (especially when compared to the first game); consisting mostly of poor ambient tunes with the occasional eastern flair, backed by really bad Godsmack metal tracks. The dialog is almost always terrible, with only a few better parts by the two main characters. The game is crippled by all sorts of glitches and audio skipping bugs on *all* platforms. That said, I'm still sticking with it. It's not the worst game I've ever played, but it hardly comes close to the first title. It's just such a big disappointment on almost all levels except for an improved graphics engine and combat mechanics. At $20, it's probably a decent value (I suppose). I have high hopes for "The Two Thrones". I suspect that it will correct a lot of the problems of the second title.
Install OpenOffice?
I'm a big fan of Magnatune. There is some excellent music on their site. All of the 128k MP3s are available under a Creative Commons license. They have FLAC/OGG/AAC/WAV/VBR MP3s available for those who pay for the CDs. You can license all of music at very reasonable prices for commercial use. They even *encourage* you to share your downloaded CDs with friends. You can choose how much you want to pay for all of the music, but since 50% of the money goes directly to the artist; it makes it more worthwhile to pay a reasonable amount for the music (I pay what I'd pay for a CD in a store, since it's lossless FLAC files that I download).
http://magnatune.com/info/give/
Tuxgames ships to the USA. I normally buy my Linux games from them.
I doubt that they really even reuse these things. It would be more likely that they use it as another way to milk $40 from a customer before they drop the service. Kinda shady, but I guess we have to read the fine print.
http://vonage.com/features_terms_service.php?lid=f ooter_terms
Seems to be noted under: "2.10 Return of Device (Does Not Apply to Business Plus Customers)"
I just signed up, and while they advertise the ability to transfer (port) landline and cellphone numbers to their service, they happened to put me on an exchange (owned by McLeod) that can only accept landline number transfers. It's a bit annoying because I just made a $50 cellphone payment that could have been avoided if they had all of their stuff in order. My number even passed the number "test" on their web page, but took them two weeks to tell me that the transfer was impossible (due to their exchange's limitations).
It's something to be aware of when folks sign up for Vonage service. The LNP transfer is ofter a tedious process, and not all of their providers have the same capabilities. They do *not* tell you this until after you already sign up.
Otherwise, the service seems to be quite reliable and sounds great. It has boatloads of excellent features and should provide a nice bridge between IP and POTS communication.
This is not correct. You do not have to make your program "free software" simply because it links against LGPL software. GTK+2/GLIB are LGPL.
From the homepage:
GTK+ is free software and part of the GNU Project. However, the licensing terms for GTK+, the GNU LGPL, allow it to be used by all developers, including those developing proprietary software, without any license fees or royalties.
"It is accurate that at this time we will not support high-definition [on Revolution]," Kaplan told IGN.com.
It's really hard to tell what will happen by the time it's released. The Gamecube is theoretically capable of 720p output, though the games only utilize 480p. Considering the video hardware that is being used, it's safe to assume that the Revolution is at least as capable as the Gamecube It's not going to matter all that much, because we're still going to be stuck with 480p DVD movies for a while. 480p is a form of SDTV. Even if it's not "HD", it's still much higher quality than any analog television. Your comment about the RCA analog television is grossly exaggerated.And let's be honest... All three systems will have hardware that's paractically the same, regardless of these cracked out specs and numbers (ironic isn't it that all three are using what is essentiall a next-gen Gamecube with PowerPC and ATI graphics). What it will really boil down to is the games.
I own a Gamecube and several other more modern consoles.
In the end, I find that I spend the most time these days playing PC Engine (Tubro Grafx) games than anything else. It's nice to be able to pick a game up for 10 minutes and leave it at that... Then, come back later when I have time and have the exact same experience.
On the new consoles, the old formula still applies. I've been playing Ikaruga off and on for more than two years now. The classic formulae (shmups and 2d-style action titles) are timeless.
By default, all distributions (except for Debian, I believe) use the Autohinter instead of the Bytecode Interpreter, due to potential patent issues. They render in very different ways. The Autohinter looks pretty good on LCD displays, with its subpixel hinting (producing fonts that are better in my opinion than Windows Cleartype), but I prefer the Bytecode Interpreter on CRTs.
I'm not sure what you mean by "native" support for Linux fonts. All of the font rendering is handled through Libfreetype. You can compile Freetype to use either rendering method, but it defaults to the Autohinter. Freetype supports more than 11 different font formats. This includes standard scalable formats such as Truetype and Type 1 fonts.
For example...
With the Bytecode Interpreter:
http://www.borgerding.org/dropline/zborgerd/screen shots/2.10_1.png
http://www.borgerding.org/dropline/zborgerd/screen shots/2.10_2.png
http://www.dropline.net/gnome/optical/2.10_4.png
http://dlgwiki.dot42.org/uploads/katana.jpg
http://dlgwiki.dot42.org/uploads/katana2.jpg
With the Autohinter:
http://www.dropline.net/gnome/optical/dropline-11. png
http://www.dropline.net/gnome/optical/dropline-9.p ng
http://www.dropline.net/gnome/optical/dropline-5.p ng
Additionally, configuration can cause fonts to look bad. Some people don't like much antialiasing. They prefer the method that Windows uses to antialias only fonts greater than 12 points in size. A combination of the Bytecode Interpreter and disabling antialiasing for small fonts can produce font rendering that is similar to the rendering that most Windows users are familiar with.
If you disable antialiasing while using the Autohinter, you'll find that fonts look terribly uneven and jagged.... They're pretty ugly. If you want to disable antialiasing, you probably should do it only with the Bytecode Interpreter being used as the renderer. This will produce the results that you may be looking for if you prefer Windows-like font rendering.
Lastly, OpenOffice.org's builds have typically included internal Freetype libraries that don't particularly look pretty. There are some workarounds for this. I mention it in the following FAQ:
http://www.dropline.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=825
It's quite outdated, but may provide you with the information that you need to get the font rendering that you prefer. You may also want to try tracking down a package of the Microsoft Core Webfonts. They are legal to distribute as long as they are provided in the original EXE, which may be extract with cabextract. As an alternative, you may be able to find a custom build of OpenOffice.org for your favorite distribution, that links against your system's own freetype libraries instead of the internal OO.o Freetype libraries.
After several months of hard work, I believe that we've been able to put together one of the finest GNOME desktops available. In fact, we had a stable and smooth GNOME 2.10.1 release before anyone else. Future releases should be much more timely than our first 2.8 series releases.
We're quite proud of the results so far, and have a lot of plans to make our 2.12 releases even better. While Todd did an abolutely amazing job on Dropline GNOME for two years, a larger team seems to be able to do many things that a single maintainer cannot do alone. That said, his work was nothing short of amazing. It's no wonder that he bagan to experience so much burn-out after a while.
We do not publicize it very much, but we've been discussing the possibility of releasing a complete Linux distribution, sans KDE and a few server-side components, that can fit on one easy to install CD. Aside from some small changes that focus on improved usability, the intention would be to provide something as close to Slackware as possible while retaining all that is needed for a functional and usable GNOME desktop.
We love Slackware and believe in most of the principles that make it one of the finest distributions in existence. We feel that providing it, bundled with Dropline GNOME, completes some of the missing usability and desktop refinement issues that scare people away from it on the desktop. I feel that we can fill this missing gap, particularly now that GNOME is no longer part of the Slackware suite.
We want to make Linux available to everyone. While there is still a learning curve for Slackware, we feel that we can still make it usable for everyone while retaining flexibility for power-users. I think that Slackware is the best platform for that. Its simplicity is second to none.
I hope that some former Slackware+Dropline users will keep an eye out for what we have in store for the future. We will have a new website going up soon with even more focus on community interaction. This will likely include a user package repository as well. If you haven't tried our 2.10.x releases of Dropline GNOME yet, please give it a shot and let us know what we can do to improve it for you. :)
My college is still using ancient DOS versions of Orcad (because upgrades are too expensive for them)and an old B2 Logic (TTL logic simulator) that is pretty outdated. They get the job done though, when you just need to have basic circuit design and simulation programs. Honestly, GPL circuit simulators are pretty good, and free. I've been able to pretty much do everything that I need to do with Oregano http://arrakis.gforge.lug.fi.uba.ar/index.php , a front-end to GNU Cap and ngSpice.
There is no reason that these "experts" can't tune a 2.6 series kernel to around 1 MB (maybe less). Kernels with modest support for lots of hardware are still around only 1.5 MB at best. Anyone complaining about it is simply talking out of their asses.
You don't want "game drivers and music drivers", then exclude them. There is no science to it. But I *want them* in my kernel, and many other people do as well.
Additionally, if Greenblatt and co. want more "enterprise features", they're certainly welcome to add time and money into developing these components.
This e-week article is misleading. It's not drawing "concern" for anybody, especially not the "open-source community". Computer Associates is not the "open-source community".
What you say is not possible. Linux will never stop "revolving" around the kernel, because (GNU/)Linux *IS* the kernel. The other stuff, on top of it, is not.
I suppose that you didn't follow the link, and notice that it lists 2.10.1 as being proposed for a release next week? You likely didn't. But, of course, you likely have more conclusive data than the info on the link that I posted... So, why not share it? After all... 2.10.1 wasn't officially announced *anywhere* on GNOME's site or mailing list, so there must be some "insider information" somewhere about its release. ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/desktop/2.10/ ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/platform/2.10/ You're a bright person.... Where is 2.10.1? It certainly isn't on the FTP site.
As far as I can tell, GNOME 2.10.1 isn't supposed to be released until next week... And that's just a proposed date: http://live.gnome.org/TwoPointEleven It is true though that there are several "2.10.1" tarballs out there, as bugfix releases for next week.
I must admit that the post in the changelog was a bit disheartening. I realize that we cannot make everyone happy, but there are some legitimate benefits to the things that are dubbed as "intrusive" by some. For instance, we are going to include an evdev patch in X11 that several users have asked for. There are little touches like this that you don't always see in Slackware, and we believe that they provide a better desktop experience for most users.
That said, in spite of the fact that I am one of many that works on Dropline GNOME, I'm very pleased to see that there are other alternatives for everyone. Each GNOME desktop for Slackware offers a unique experience and helps provide choices for Slackers (which has always been the mission of Dropline GNOME in the first place).
We will be releasing Dropline GNOME 2.10 within a few days. Currently, it is being BETA tested, but things are progressing well. It will be our first release that is built totally from the ground up, since we (the development team) took the project over from Todd back in Novemeber. We're really proud of our work.
In addition, I'd like to pay my respects to the other Slackware GNOME teams out there. Freerock (of GNOME.SlackBuild) frequents our IRC channel, and has been very kind in sharing some of his experiences with GNOME 2.10's (many) quirks. He's a very nice guy, and has a quality GNOME desktop. I've also visited the GWARE room on Freenode, and have found that they are also nice guys as well. They're also developing a quality desktop.