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revford blog
Shots do not hurt other players (yet)
FSF Campaign on Secure/Restricted Boot
Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:19:12 GMT
Another important campaign over at the Free Software Foundation, a new security feature that Microsoft are pushing for PCs marked as Windows 8 compatible could lock you out from installing any alternative OS.
Alternatives including GNU/Linux distros like Debian, Slackware or Ubuntu and really really alternative OS choices like Haiku, ReactOS and FreeDOS. All projects I have a special love for.
Implemented correctly this doesn't have to screw people over, so the FSF are rallying people to raise awareness of the issue and make the community voice heard by the hardware manufacturers.
Please take the time to have a read of the link below, and if you give a fuck, please sign.
Doom (and other classics) on modern machines
Mon, 11 May 2009 06:17:08 GMT
This should be my last post for a while on computer games and is in part a thank you to Id software and 3D Realms, who release old versions of their game engines as Free software. This has allowed clever folks to port old DOS and Windows games to modern platforms.
If the rumours are true, 3D Realms recently went out of business, so we may never see Duke Nukem Forever, but thanks to the company's foresight, we will always be able to play the classic Duke Nukem 3D however future games machines evolve.
All these classic games have had their game engine code released to the public as Free software, communities of coders have sprung up around these releases and created new versions of the engines for new platforms and added new touches to improve the look and feel.
These are game engines, you'll still need a copy of either the original game, or often the shareware version to play. Shareware copies of the games are all over the place to download. Check the Id software and 3D Realms sites.
Here is the original Doom II for DOS running in DOSBox:
And here is the same game running in PrBoom, running natively on Linux and using OpenGL to create more realistic lighting and smooth out the textures.
You can grab PrBoom, the current front runner in the Doom engine world here:
Likewise you can find modernised versions of these games:
ioquake3 (Quake III)
Q2 LNX (Quake II)
Duke 3D (Duke Nukem 3D
WolfGL (Wolfenstein 3D)
Much of this is made possible by SDL, a Free and cross platform alternative to DirectX.
If you write software for DirectX, it's Windows only.
If you write for SDL you can recompile for Linux, Windows, Windows CE, BeOS, MacOS, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, Solaris, IRIX, QNX, AmigaOS, Dreamcast, Atari, AIX, OSF/Tru64, RISC OS, SymbianOS, and OS/2
SDL code for Windows and BeOS also works with ReactOS and Haiku.
DOSBox, the simple way to run old DOS stuff
Thu, 07 May 2009 09:34:46 GMT
A special additional I should mention to all the alternative Free OS stuff from yesterday, if you don't want to install a whole new OS to play some of those old DOS games, then DOSBox is the way.
DOSBox is a DOS emulator that supports all kinds of new hardware, translating it into a format that your old DOS games can understand, modern sound becomes a SoundBlaster or GUS, USB joysticks become gameport joysticks and so on.
This is the best solution for replaying classic games as you get to use all your modern equipment and don't need to install a new OS.
As ever, Linux people should find DOSBox included in their distro's package manager, Mac and Windows people have to do things the old fashioned way. The ReactOS downloader failed to install this for me, so you'll have to do things the Windows way.
DOSBox has worked well for me so far, Tie Fighter, Doom II and Windows 3.1 with Civ II run great. My joystick is well supported so I'm going to pick up a joypad to continue the retro gaming fun.
There are better ways to run Doom II on a modern machine, but that's a story for another day.
Alternative OS you may not have heard of
Wed, 06 May 2009 22:34:51 GMT
Linux seems to be the OS of choice about here now, a few Mac users and one or two still hanging onto Windows.
However Linux isn't the only Free and Open Source OS about these days, where Linux and is a Free version of UNIX, there are Free and interesting versions of other popular OS designs in various stages of development. This post is about FreeDOS, ReactOS and Haiku, Free versions of DOS, Windows and BeOS.
FreeDOS
FreeDOS is the most complete of these three Operating Systems, it's already solid, usable and spot on for running all those classic old DOS games.
Currently at version 1.0 the FreeDOS installer includes tons of software much like you'd expect from a modern Linux distro, but with all the wonders of the C:\ prompt and with, by modern standards, trivial system requirements and a functional but fugly GUI. But let's be fair, if you wanted a GUI you wouldn't think of DOS as a first choice of OS.
ReactOS
Using elements from WINE, the Windows compatibility layer used on Linux and the BSDs, and adding a new and free Kernel and other underlying elements written from scratch, ReactOS has reached version 0.3.9 and is really starting to come to life.
The goal of the ReactOS project is to create a Free OS compatible with Windows NT, that can run software designed for Windows on hardware designed for Windows.
While the website points out it's still very much a work in progress there is already a working installer, that can give you a Windows like desktop that can already run popular software like Firefox, ScummVM and AbiWord.
Graphics and Network seem solid but sound isn't quite there yet.
Definitely an impressive project that's going to be a big deal down the road.
Haiku
Haiku is a Free OS for Desktop computers, inspired by BeOS.
BeOS was a an alternative OS for Power computers, it looked good to replace MacOS on the PowerPC clones when Apple pulled out of the clone market. Sadly for Be, when Apple pulled their OS from other hardware manufacturers all the PowerPC builders called it a day and there was no home for BeOS. Be did port the OS to x86 but that market was carved up between the dominant Windows and the emerging Linux and BeOS once again failed to find a home.
The BeOS was eventually bought up by Palm who didn't seem to do anything with it, so several other groups decided to use the good ideas and try and build a new BeOS. Haiku is the most advanced and it's Free.
Currently there is no installer, but they do provide disc images that work nicely in emulators like Qemu so you can give it a spin already.
There is no fixed date for a proper release yet, but with Google setting about it in their Summer of Code again and steady progress being made already I'm looking forward to seeing where Haiku can go.
All these Free Operating Systems run nicely under Qemu, a Free x86 PC emulator, so you can try them all out without needed a stack of spare PCs or partitions. Linux users can install Qemu from their package manager.
Mac users should check out Q.
Windows users have a look here:
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