As Valve Joins The Linux Foundation, Start Taking Linux Gaming Seriously

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December 5, 2013

Valve has doubled down on its commitment to make Linux gaming an arena to take seriously by joining The Linux Foundation. “Joining the Linux Foundation is one of many ways Valve is investing in the advancement of Linux gaming. Through these efforts, we hope to contribute tools for developers building new experiences on Linux, compel hardware manufacturers to prioritize support for Linux, and ultimately deliver an elegant and open platform for Linux users,” said Mike Sartain of Valve. If anyone can deliver that long awaited platform its Valve, which has found much success in the gaming world on other platforms.

For some time now, there have been signs that a renaissance for Linux gaming is on the way. In October, I reported on comments from Lars Gustavsson, creative director for EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE), the Electronic Arts studio that does the Battlefield series (seen in the screenshot above). Gustavsson told Polygon that DICE would love to delve into Linux games, and had this to say about the ever elusive “killer game:”

TeamViewer 9 Is Out With New Features, Linux Update

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Phoronix

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December 5, 2013

The TeamViewer remote access/viewer software popular for VNC-like tasks as well as online meetings, is now officially up to version 9. With TeamViewer 9 comes new features as well as QuickSupport for Linux…

Valve Engineer Invents New Game Controllers for Your Tongue and Butt

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The Verge

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December 5, 2013

Just about every console maker has revealed details of odd, inventive controllers that they worked on and abandoned, but rarely do we actually get to see what such novel control schemes look like in action. Though they’re personal projects, Valve engineer Ben Krasnow has released videos showing off two devices he’s made that allow video games to be controlled by the tongue and by how a player is sitting. Krasnow calls the latter device a “posture-based” controller, which allows users to move around a game world by sitting on it and shifting weight on their butt forward, backward, or side-to-side. It takes the shape of a large pad, and it also allows gamers to swivel left and right to look around.

Continue readingâ€¦

Will Google Help Developers Port Chrome Apps to iOS and Android?

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OStatic

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December 5, 2013

It was back in September that the Google Chrome team put an extensive post up heralding “packaged apps” that work with Chrome, which the team obviously felt could become a huge differentiator for Google’s browser. “These apps are more powerful than before, and can help you get work done, play games in full-screen and create cool content all from the web,” wrote the Chrome team. Since then, if you’re a Chrome user, you may have tried some of these apps and experienced how they make the browser feel almost like an operating system underlying applications.

Now, there are lots of reports coming out that claim that Google plans to help developers port Chrome apps to other operating systems, ranging from Apple’s iOS to Android. Some of the reports say we’ll see the basic architecture of this concept arrive in January.

Twitter Names the First Woman to its Board of Directors

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The Verge

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December 5, 2013

Twitter has named former Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino as the first female member of its board, according to an SEC filing surfaced this morning. For 15 years, Scardino headed one of the largest multinational book publishers in the world, bringing Twitter much-needed media connections as it looks to expand internationally. Before Pearson, Scardino served as CEO of the Economist Group, publisher of the influential British magazine of same name.

The move addresses criticism that surfaced this October, when the New York Times‘ Claire Cain Miller singled out the company’s new board for its lack of diversity. “The board? All white men. The investors? All men,” Miller wrote. The criticism was met with hostility at first, most notably by CEO…

New Wayland Live CD Has A Lot Of Features

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Phoronix

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December 5, 2013

The oddly-named Wayland Live CD environment for checking out the next-generation Linux display stack has been updated. The Wayland Live CD ships with many enabled tool-kits, the latest Wayland code, Orbital and Hawaii support, KDE Frameworks Wayland programs, and other new native Wayland applications…

Terminator Ends the Terminal Window Blahs

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LinuxInsider

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December 5, 2013

Terminator is not for casual Linux users who rarely stray from the menu-driven applications. If you ever venture into what some regard as the dark side of the Linux OS, however, Terminator can end your discomfort by using a single-session terminal window. Terminator is a powerful and useful terminal emulator built with many features not included in standard terminal applications. It takes you well beyond the limited functionality of traditional terminal windows the likes of ROXTerm, Rxvt, xterm, LXterminal and the GNOME terminal.

Interview with Adobe’s Open Web Standards Guru

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OpenSource.com

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December 5, 2013

Vincent Hardy is Adobe’s Director of Engineering for the Web Platform. He uses CSS to power projects that improve open standards for the web. He says there’s nothing he hates about CSSâ€”though the lack of variables and scoping bugged him for a long timeâ€”and is particularly enamored with the way CSS has organically developed into a robust technology.

Sun Microsystems is where Vincent Hardy got his start in web standards and open source. In this interview, he tells me what lessons he learned there and how open standards are growing at Adobe.

Distribution Release: Canaima GNU/Linux 4.0

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DistroWatch

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December 5, 2013

Canaima GNU/Linux 4.0 has been released. Canaima is a government-sponsored Venezuelan distribution based on Debian’s stable branch. Code-named “Kerepakupai” (named after the world’s highest waterfall), this major new release incorporates many new features and updated applications, including the following: GNOME desktop environment with GNOME Shell 3.4; Linux kernel….

Quad-Monitor AMD/NVIDIA Linux Gaming: What You Need To Know

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Phoronix

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December 5, 2013

The multiple monitor experience on Linux traditionally was very arcane and difficult; it would involve editing text configuration errors, trial-and-error, picking the right Linux GPU driver, and various other steps to get a working multi-monitor desktop. Since then there’s been RandR 1.2+ and major improvements to all of the important Linux desktop graphics drivers — both open and closed-source. How is the Linux multi-monitor now when using a modern distribution and the latest graphics cards that can drive four monitors simultaneously? Let’s find out! Up for testing today are NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards using both the open and closed-source drivers while using DVI, DisplayPort, and HDMI displays.