Tag Archives: Linux
Left 4 Dead 2 now available on Linux, reclaims beta moniker
Valve’s bid to lure gamers away from Microsoft’s platform just got a little sweeter: Left 4 Dead 2 is finally available on Linux. Despite early appearances in early leaks, the game has been absent from Steam’s Linux compatible library. The wait might have been worth it — early ports of the game apparently only ran at six frames per second, but it eventually surpassed its Windows counterpart. Now, Valve is looking towards is community to fine tune the port even further, offering a fully functional beta client to Steam users who already own the game. Although the focus here is Linux compatibility, the company is offering the beta to Windows and Mac users as well, and says that running the game on any system helps with testing. Ready to take down the horde? Fire up Ubuntu and get started. Otherwise, you can check out the company’s official announcement at the source link below.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: L4D Blog
Alienware X51 Ubuntu Linux compact gaming PC unveiled
If you’re familiar with the Alienware X51, you know you’ve only had it available with Windows software out of the box until now – now you’ll find Ubuntu leading up the show. This machine brings on a rather small form factor you can use to replace your gaming console – if you dare – a possibility made even more real now that Valve’s Steam gaming interface works with Linux natively. You know good and well you’ve wanted to try it since that bit was announced.
Ubuntu is being pushed with this machine as an ideal environment for gamers of all kinds, specifically because of its low-weight abilities. You’ve got an extremely clean build with this operating system right out of the box, with only the basics loaded immediately – you choose what you want when you want it – you also get Ubuntu-specific interfaces through Ubuntu’s Software Center, with “thousands of free applications” at your fingertips.
Several builds are ready for gaming action with the Alienware X51 this week, the least expensive of these starting at a cool $ 599 USD. You’ll be able to ramp up to $ 1,049 with the largest of the collection – it’s still tiny, it’s just got a 3rd Gen Ivy Bridge Intel Core i7 processor under the hood instead of the smallest model’s Core i3. These systems also come with NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphics processing architecture for top-notch graphics delivery.
Alienware X51
Front-Height: 13.504″ (343mm)
Rear-Height: 12.54″ (318.5mm)
Depth: 12.52″ (318mm)
Width: 3.74″ (95mm)
Have a peek at the Alienware X51 right this minute and consider Ubuntu for your next-generation gaming beast. Let us know if you’re planning on buying one of these builds now, and be sure to note if you’ll be jumping in with Ubuntu Linux or if you’ll stick with Windows for the foreseeable future.
Alienware X51 Ubuntu Linux compact gaming PC unveiled is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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Fedora 18 Spherical Cow brings Linux fans a taste of Cinnamon, new installer
Fedora’s Linux distribution may be competing with Ubuntu for the title of silliest update name, but that doesn’t diminish the impact of what are often significant revisions. See the just-launched Fedora 18 as an example: while it’s called Spherical Cow, it introduces both a simpler installer to replace an aging predecessor as well as the option of using the Gnome 3-based Cinnamon desktop we recently saw in Linux Mint 13. There’s also FedFS, a file system that provides unity between multiple file servers, and newer versions of both Sugar and XFCE for those who prefer different interfaces. If these and many under-the-hood updates can overcome the giggling over rounded bovines, Fedora 18′s download and release notes are ready at the source links.
Filed under: Software
Via: Fedora (Google+)
Source: Fedora (1), (2)
Valve opens Steam for Linux beta, asks users to track bugs via GitHub
Not “experienced” enough to qualify for Valve’s first Steam for Linux beta? That’s okay — patience pays off. Poised as an early Christmas present, Valve has opened Steam’s Linux beta to all users. The team is tweaking how it handles buck reports too, eschewing the existing forum-based system for a public GitHub repository — though the Linux forums will remain open for community discussion. New and updating beta testers will be treated to a few minor fixes — correcting excessive CPU usage from the client while running Team Fortress 2 and adding a few needed details to the Linux variant of Big Picture mode. With just under 40 games working on the Penguin-suited OS, Newell’s Windows 8 alternative is starting to gain ground. It’s going to be interesting to see where it goes.
[Thanks, Devon]
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Steam Community
$120 tablet that runs both Android and Linux to launch in early 2013
For anyone who has ever used his or her Android tablet and wished that it could double as a desktop-style device, PengPod has a product just for you. Ars Technica reports that the new PengPod tablet, which runs both Android and Linux, has met its crowd-sourced fundraising goals and will so on sale in January for $ 120 a 7-inch model and $ 185 for a 10-inch model. According to Ars, the tablet will be able to “dual-boot Android 4.0 and a version of Linux with the touch-friendly KDE Plasma Active interface.” Overall, the tablet received funding of nearly $ 73,000, or around 49% more than the $ 49,000 that the company had been seeking.
OpenELEC 3.0 Linux distro launches in beta, rolls in XBMC 12
We hope you weren’t getting settled in with OpenELEC 2.0. Hot on the heels of the finished 2.0 release, the developement team has pushed out a first beta of OpenELEC 3.0 that folds XBMC 12.0 Frodo into the Linux distribution for home theater PCs. Accordingly, most of the additions are those that come with XBMC’s code base: OpenELEC now supports ARM through the Raspberry Pi, betters its DVR support and slips in a modern audio engine. The distro-specific changes bring an update to the Linux 3.6 kernel, many more hardware drivers and an option to boot to RAM instead of a pokey hard drive. Running one beta based on another carries more than its share of risk, so be careful; if the positives for your living room continue to outweigh the pitfalls, 3.0 awaits at the source link.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Software, HD
Source: OpenELEC
Linux Foundation vet explains setbacks in getting a Secure Boot key for Windows 8 PCs
Linux fans wondering why they still don’t have a friendly UEFI Secure Boot option for Windows 8 PCs won’t get a solution in hand this week, but they’ll at least get an explanation. The Linux Foundation’s primary backer for the alternative OS efforts, Parallels’ server CTO James Bottomley, has revealed that Microsoft’s requirements for signed, Secure Boot-ready code are tough if developers aren’t entirely onboard its train of thought. The Redmond crew demands a paper contract signature (remember those?), agreements on work beyond the relevant software and a packaging process that complicates attempts to use open-source tools. Bottomley has already overcome most of these challenges, although he’s still waiting for a Linux Foundation-specific key that should theoretically clear a major hurdle. Whether or not that leads to a remedy in days or weeks is up to Microsoft; in the meantime, we’ll take comfort in knowing that a signature is so far a convenience for booting into Linux, rather than a necessity.
Filed under: Software, Microsoft
Via: ZDNet
Source: James Bottomley
Linux Mint turns 14, settles into young adulthood with Nadia
Not everyone is super happy with Canonical and the direction it has taken Ubuntu in. Sure, its popularity continues growing, but so does that of an upstart distro called Mint. In addition to swapping purples for greens, Linux Mint ditches the controversial Unity in favor of MATE and Cinnamon, its two GNOME-based desktop environments. With the move to version 14, code named Nadia, the codebase of Mint has caught up to Quantal and its accompanying desktops have received some minor improvements. The MDM display manager has also been updated, with support for user photos and themes added. The most welcome change is certainly to the package manager, which finally runs as root — meaning users no longer have to enter their password for every piece of software they install. To download and try out Linux Mint 14 for yourself hit up the source link.
Filed under: Software
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Linux Mint
Unity 4.0 now on sale with DirectX 11 support, Linux publishing preview, new animation tools and more
The Unity game engine and development platform has reached the 4.0 milestone and is now available for purchase with a slew of new features onboard. Headlining the update are DirectX 11 support, new animation tools and an add-on for publishing games to Flash. In addition, Tux is getting some love with a preview of a deployment option for publishing games to Desktop Linux. Sure, a landmark release might seem like a good time for Unity Technologies to cool its heels and slow down development, but a respite isn’t on the roadmap. According to the firm’s CEO, David Helgason, Unity 4 will see a faster paced schedule and more frequent releases than the platform previously had. Developers can snag a free version of the software or shell out at least $ 1,500 for a professional license. For more details on additions and improvements to the engine, hit the jump for the press release or tap the second source link below for the complete rundown.
Filed under: Gaming
Unity 4.0 now on sale with DirectX 11 support, Linux publishing preview, new animation tools and more originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Nov 2012 02:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Steam for Linux beta launches with 26 games
Remember that Steam for Linux beta we told you about a while back? It launched today, giving a selection of users a first glimpse at Steam running on Linux. The beta is limited-access, so users needed to sign up to get an invite. Even if you signed up, there’s still a pretty good chance you weren’t selected as a participant with this first round of invites – if that’s the case, then sit tight, because Valve will be sending out more invites to the beta soon.
Valve has been working on this beta for quite some time, testing it internally over and over again before finally letting some of its users in on the action. Team Fortress 2 comes included with the client download (it is free-to-play after all), but if you want to play some other games, you’ll be pleased to know that there are a total of 26 Linux games now available on Steam. Most of these titles are indie games, but there is one full-fledged retail game – Serious Sam 3: BFE – that sticks out from the bunch.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the indie games that are available for Linux on Steam have been featured in the Humble Indie Bundle before – one of the big draws of the Humble Indie Bundle is that it supports Windows, Mac, and Linux. You’ve got titles like World of Goo, Space Pirates and Zombies, Dungeons of Dredmor, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent to pick from, so it sounds like it’s time to get to playing.
At the moment, the Steam for Linux beta is only compatible with Ubuntu 12.04 and above. Steam for Linux team member Frank Crockett says that Valve will eventually release Steam for more Linux distros, but since an “overwhelming majority” of applicants said they’re running Ubuntu, that’s the distro that got it first. The Steam for Linux beta also includes big picture mode, and Valve assures that at some point in the future, the beta will be open for all Steam members to try. Stay tuned.
[via Valve]
Steam for Linux beta launches with 26 games is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
