The Blog of Helios: Indie Gamers See The Linux Market

This post is for all the gamers out there who are wanting native Linux games. They are coming via Indie Gamers and others willing to port their code to Lynux. The Blog of Helios is highlighting and reviewing one of these games Caster. I am in the same class as he is and my gaming skills leave much to be desired. I left them behind after Doom 2 and really haven't played much since. But for those interested in first person shooters hop on over and read the review. Then I recomend buying the game for the $5 which is more than a reasonable amount to pay. Coding for games takes a lot of time and effort and they should be rewarded for their efforts. I'm sure they would accept more if you like the game. Give it a try and tell us what you think.
The Blog of Helios: Indie Gamers See The Linux Market

One more thing to mention is how it is installed. I asked the developers of Caster and this is the reply from Frank:

"They're installed via an installer, called mojoinstaller, that was developed by Ryan Gordon another Linux game port developer. The main reason for this is that there is to be a distribution neutral as possible with the game as there would have to be a .deb, an .rpm, and at least a tarball or installer for "everyone else" if you did more than just the installer. Having said this the installer plays nicely with all distributions and uninstalls it's stuff gracefully."

This is good news since there are so many distributions the game can be played on installation will be a snap. I want to extend my gratitude to the developers of Caster for responding so quickly to my installation questions.

Wallper For Linux Poking Fun At Win98

I found this older cd insert for Windows 98 and made a few modifications. It is sized for 1024x768 so should scale decently for most desktops.

5 reasons why the Ubuntu-Yahoo deal is a win-win affair.

interesting article here on the Google to Yahoo switch. I have to agree that Canonical should pursue any lucrative income streams. These are the avenues that will keep Ubuntu in production and free to us end users. I used to be a long time Yahoo fan but gave the the nod some time ago when all my searches always fell on a product of some type to sell me. Not always relevant to the search even. That was some time ago and I'm willing to see if they have changed. I'll most likely still going to use the term Google it even if I do the search on Yahoo.

I am writing this post using Lucid Lynx on a live USB install. It is running perfectly on a Toshiba laptop running an Intel Centrino Duo. It failed to finish the boot on the oder HP laptop. We'll try again later.

5 reasons why the Ubuntu-Yahoo deal is a win-win affair.

Beta One Lucid Lynx Released

Ubuntu Lucid Lynx is fast approaching the final release. But for now the official beta one has been released and is ready for download. You can see the official announcement here or visit Distrowatch for a complete synopsis and breakdown. Read Canonical's technical release notes for the key differences between version 10.04 and earlier versions. You will also find download links on that page as well as bug reports. Well worth the visit if you plan on installing now or when the stable version is released. One of the more interesting changes I noticed was the change from Google to Yahoo as the default search in Mozilla Firefox. Does anyone know why?

The kernel gets pushed to 2.6.32 which is something I like. Running with the latest kernel is not something everyone likes to do until it is proven a bit longer. In my opinion why not, since Grub will give you the options of rolling back to earlier versions (providing you haven't uninstalled them).

Everything is not all a bed of roses and bugs are known to exists and more to be found. After all it is still a beta release. I plan on waiting to install when stable or later but it will be fun to take a live version for a spin. Let's hear what you think.
Ubuntu Unleashed 2010 Edition: Covering 9.10 and 10.4 (5th Edition)

A Newbie's Getting Started Guide to Linux, Free Makeuseof.com Guide

I am always in favor of free information especially guides related to Linux. Yes the offer comes with a gotcha. Is there anything really free? (Besides Linux) They do have a form and want you to receive emailed offers or information. This may or may not be a trade off you want but at least you can decide. 

A Newbie's Getting Started Guide to Linux, Free Makeuseof.com Guide

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How to Install Ubuntu Lucid Proposed Community Themes In Karmic/Jaunty/Intrepid

Have you seen the new themes? Are you wanting to try Lucid Lynx just a little without much hassle? Now you can. The Ubuntu Geek has a quick how to that explains how to install the Lucid Lynx themes and give your current Ubuntu install a facelift. He has instructions for versions 8.04 through the now current 9.10. Go ahead and install your favorite and it will seem like a whole new system. At least in the way it looks. As for me, I think the newer themes are going to draw on more graphic power than my tired laptop will take. I may want to hold out for the Xfce version when it arrives.
How to Install Ubuntu Lucid Proposed Community Themes In Karmic/Jaunty/Intrepid

Update The Linux Kernel

One of the cool features of Linux is how the updates work. I'm going to talk about updates with Ubuntu but the same is true, methods might differ, for about all distros. I have the Update Manager set to notify when updates are available. The other night a kernel update was available to install version 2.6.31-20 generic. Throwing caution to the wind, I installed the kernel update with the Update Manager. In my setup I am using Grub as a boot manager and I have the added option of choosing more than one kernel to boot into. Windows will never give you that option after a service pack install ever. This is one aspect where Linux and Windows differ greatly.

A kernel update is a major update since it is the core of the operating system. If I were to do this in Windows it would be considered a service pack update and not easily reversed if something goes wrong. In Linux you can remove a kernel update as easily as installing it.
Service packs can be removed in Windows but it is time intensive and may leave the system unstable. Removing any unneeded kernel in Ubuntu is very easy using Synaptic Package Manager. A quick search for the Linux header or kernel and you will be able to mark the appropriate files for removal. Synaptic will do the rest including updating Grub. This can also be accomplished on the command line using apt-get remove but you will have to know the name of the packages you want to remove.

This is one of the key differences in Linux as opposed to Windows, that will keep me using Linux for a long long time.

Linux Unified Kernel: Linux Unified Kernel, Operating system, Kernel (computing), Application binary interface, Application software, Device driver, ... Windows, Linux, Architecture of Windows NT