Altway Blog - Linux World

Powered by Vamos engine (see here for details), VDrift is a cross-platform, open-source driving simulation made with drift racing in mind, and it’s currently available for Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Windows (Cygwin). Although the game is in an early development stage, it is supposed to be very playable and quite featurepacked, with 19 tracks (including the Nordschleife track), 28 cars, AI players, “very realistic physics” and a (simple) multiplayer network mode.


Initial screenshots look a little rudimentary at times, but seriously sweet at others. I look forward to playing this one and hope to have an in-depth view of both Vamos and VDrift over the coming months.

You can view more screenshots and get VDrift for free at Here.

KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) web page editing. It’s designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional- looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

Of course it’s also possible to write your own code: for that purpose KompoZer features an intelligent Dreamweaver-like code interface.

KompoZer is based on Gecko, the layout engine inside Mozilla; it's a super-fast, very reliable, standards conformant engine maintained on a daily basis by a wide community of developers. Its remarkable support of XML, CSS and JavaScript offers the best authoring platform on the market. Its architecture based on XUL makes it the most extensible editing tool ever.

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Urban Terror is a free multiplayer first person shooter (FPS). Urban Terror uses the free, stand-alone, ioquake3 engine modified, which doesn't require Quake III Arena, in addition to being an add-on to id Software's Quake III Arena.

Urban Terror is focused on blending realism with the fast-paced action of shooters such as Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament. The realism in the mod is introduced through a number of changes.

The weapons available are real-life, have recoil, are less accurate when fired while moving, and require reloading after a magazine has been expended. The number of weapons and other gear that can be carried is limited.

Damage is also realistic, based on dividing the player target into discrete areas. In addition to the damage system, wounds require bandaging, and wounds sustained in the legs or feet slow the player down considerably until they are bandaged. A stamina system is also present, and is depleted by activities such as sprinting or jumping; crouching down allows the stamina bar to recover faster.

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Linux XP is a strange beast. From what I gather it tries very hard to emulate the look and feel of Microsoft Windows in order to make the transition to Linux easier to the Microsoft-familiar.
That is an admirable goal shared by some rather successful commercial entities like Xandros. Apparently with this release, Linux XP is more like "Linux Vista," however. I question the logic of emulating an OS that has received such a chilly reception among end users.

I must stress from the beginning that I do not agree with the idea behind this distribution. I believe half-measures like this that spend so much time and effort trying to turn Linux into something it's not (Windows) are detrimental to end-users. If someone wants to learn Linux, great, but they should learn proper Linux, not this Frankenstein monster. There, now I've said my peace. On to the rant.

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