Do 'leaders' speak their own languages in diplomacy screens? I wonder whether there's any improvement in that regard over Civ V, where a few of the languages reportedly had absurd scripts, and amateurish 'voice acting'.

I can tell from my own knowledge that the Turkish was appallingly bad (unidiomatic, awful choice of words, 'acted' by an obvious amateur); I'm told some of the Greek (either Alexander or Theodora) didn't make much sense either.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

GNOME's Minesweeper (Mines)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: KelsIf HL2 didn't set off my simulation sickness in a uniquely bad way, even when the FoV is set to 100

Same here, it triggers mine in a way no other first-person game does; and I don't understand why.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

In HL2, I'm still stuck at the lighthouse/flying ship stage. Too stupid to figure out what I need to do, in order to take the ship down.

I haven't touched the game in almost two years, I think.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Purple Library GuyThat is absolutely true, but for our purposes it doesn't matter. Apple can make tons of profits and do very well as a company, but if they do so by emphasizing iOS and phones, it could still represent an opening for Linux in the desktop-and-laptop space.

Several years ago, when MacOS 10.7 (Lion) came out, people began saying that this was the beginning of the end for the Mac, that it would eventually merge into iOS, and be replaced by the iPad line, etc. At the time (I was using a Mac) I thought this was a bit overblown, because contrary to the allegations, Apple was keeping their mobile & desktop OSs distinct, despite premature attempts in the industry to merge the two styles (M$'s 'Metro', etc.)

I quit using a Mac after 10.8, and haven't really kept up with them ever since, but recent developments suggest that people who were protesting the demise of the Mac might have been right after all. As it became known last December, there's no longer a MacOS team at Apple now, so it's a side project to iOS at this point. The hardware updates to the Mac line are also getting more and more bizarre. So after a certain 'golden age' following the intel transition, the Mac might be returning to its status all through the '90s as an odd & overpriced platform, of which the only real use would be to run XCode in order to write iOS applications.

I'd love to think that Linux can then step in, and save the multi-purpose desktop PC; but then again, changing mainstream user habits are turning that into an old relic as well. I just wish to keep having access to multi-purpose devices where I can be ROOT, have complete control over what bits go in and out, and write/change/compile software as I please.

Perhaps the 'future' of multi-purpose PC enthusiasts will be multi-purpose development boards. So hopefully that 'market' keeps developing.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I'm confused, though: Is there anything in the article to substantiate Valve's commitment to Steam Machines? You offer good arguments to the effect that SteamOS is going strong, and Valve's Linux support in general is promising, etc.--and these are absolutely true, of course. But is the console-cum-PC hardware they tried to push last year doing just as well?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I'm very happy with my Gazelle Pro 9 laptop; and as attested by everyone else, the Linux support, regardless of distro, is flawless. I actually have a somewhat funny story about System76 support -- when I first got the laptop, I wanted to run FreeBSD on it (FreeBSD 9; can't remember what revision). I already knew that FreeBSD didn't support the wifi card, or Haswell integrated graphics; but it didn't even boot on this machine. I went through some hoops, and finally tricked the machine into booting FreeBSD, but then other problems came up. I wrote to the support page on System76, and they did try to help me, though it didn't resolve my problem; finally the support person reminded me that they don't support FreeBSD, and I didn't insist any further. They could have told me to buzz off, or ignored me right from the start.

The gazp9 has an amazing display, and great internals (my only complaint is the lack of discrete graphics). The chassis on the other hand needs a bit of improvement, I believe. I haven't seen the newest iteration of the Gazelle Pro, maybe they've already made some changes. But even some of the lower end Lenovos feel sturdier, and frankly look a little bit better, compared to it.

A desktop I always prefer to build myself, but the next time I need a laptop, I'll look at System76 first.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Here's a pretty interesting looking new indie title that's also on Linux:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/414330 [External Link]

Check out the trailers. It piques my interest particularly because I've spent 8 years in Chicago's south side; but the premise is unique nevertheless.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I've been a fan of this series for 25 years now; I'll get this one whenever I can afford it.

25 ... I'm getting old

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I remember finishing this in one sitting at my friend's house ... way back in antediluvian times.
Nephilim roamed the world in those days ... men of renown, who ran giant computer stores where we could get 4MB for $100.

View this comment - View article - View full comments