Music and More Games

So back in Windows days I used iTunes. No more. First I used Rhythmbox. It works, but seems
to have trouble finding decoders for a lot of the mp4 type files. I have switched to Amarok.
Works really VERY nicely, despite rumors that it is a system hog. Of course, I have read in my whole
CD collection (using Soundjuicer) and store everything in .ogg-vorbis format. (.mp3 might be a better
choice because I can't keep ogg on my iPod. I may change at some point.) I completely
avoid all the proprietary iTunes formats. I buy any mp3s I want from Amazon because there is no
copy protection.

Continuing to procrastinate from the work I should be doing -- tonight I tried gravity wars.
It's an oldy but goody. You fly a space ship with arrow keys to collect treasure w/o crashing.
Good fun. It does not seem to have sound -- so you can play it while listening to music.

I also tried Neverball. Don't bother. It is such a processor hog that it does not run. I have a reasonably
modern machine. It's not top of the line. If the game won't run -- heck with it.

All games I've tried so far are just part of the standard Debian etch distro.

Games

I've figured out how to satisfy every interest I have with Linux, but games not so much. My view is that it's totally possible to be a happy gamer with Linux only, but, like everything else, it takes some investigation to find the good stuff -- and of course that's what I want to document.

So -- though I have oodles of things to say about teaching, videos, photos, wifi, data-crunching, coding, bill-paying and all manner of geek activities, I'll start with a silly game -- because this is a blog -- and
the silly game is what I'm doing tonight!

I am not a heavy gamer like kids. Not interested in Warcraft or Duke Nukem or whatever passes for single-player-shooter, massive multiplayer RPG or any of that stuff. I like the light games -- Luxor, Bugs, Tapdown, Bejeweled -- that sort of thing. So tonight I found frozen-bubble.

apt-get install frozen-bubble.

It's a cute little game. Similar to Bubble Madness and similar things on Windows -- but with much better graphics and some really nice cool jazz to play along to. So, that's the first native Linux, fully open-source, free, easy to install, Debian / Ubuntu kind of game I'll recommend.

Witnessing for Linux

Bit by bit, I intend to document how I live a satisfying, scientific, business, finance, art and musical life completely free from Windows and almost entirely free from paid software.

I have so far felt no urge to blog -- but recently I have had a creeping sense that it might possibly be useful
to talk about how I live with Linux.

There is a tremendous amount of interest in Linux. A hacker friend said "The only thing that the net has more information about than Linux is sex!" Newbies are pouring onto Linux boxes, particularly with the advent of Ubuntu.

But still -- there could be more -- and still -- Linux is not without its challenges. So I thought I'd talk about
how I really use it -- and how I get done all the things that most people count on Microsoft for.