Paul Everitt writes us about the “European Python and Zope Conference 2002, inaugural event for growing developer community in Europe. Open source leaders will give keynotes, and it’s June 26-28, 2002, in Charleroi, Belgium.
http://www.europython.org

CHARLEROI, MAY 22 – The EuroPython and Zope Conference 2002 announces

the first major Python and Zope Conference in Europe, held June 26-28

in Charleroi, Belgium. With keynote speeches that include an original

leader of open source, the creator of Python, and the architect of

Zope, as well as major developer activities, the conference promises

to be a breakthrough event for open software in Europe.

Hundreds of new and experienced developers attending the conference

will see a full program, including:

o Keynote by Guido van Rossum, creator of Python

o Keynote by Eric Raymond, an originator of the open source movement

and active Python developer

o Tutorials and development sessions by Jim Fulton, architect of Zope

and Chief Technology Officer at Zope Corporation

o State of the Zope talk by Paul Everitt, co-founder of Zope

Corporation

The conference program has over 30 presentations and tutorials in 7

tracks, including Python Language, Zope, Python In Science and

Industry, Python In Business, Python Applications, and Web Services.

Note that the Python Language track showcases Jython, the 100% pure

Java implementation of the Python language. The program contains

tutorials, presentations, lightning talks, and “birds of a feather”

gatherings. Additional events include a “sprint” for building Zope 3,

the next major version of Zope, as well as the first general member’s

meeting of the EuroZope Foundation and a meeting of the Python

Business Forum.

EuroPython 2002 will be held in Charleroi, Belgium, a city close to

Brussels. Space is filling quickly, so early registration at the

EuroPython website (http://www.europython.org) is encouraged. Student

discounts are available.

The EuroPython 2002 conference continues this year’s series of open

source developer events in Europe, including FOSDEM and LinuxTag,

which each attracted thousands of attendees. Like these conferences,

EuroPython 2002 is organized by a volunteer group of open source

developers.

**About Python**

Python is a leading object-oriented open source programming language

that runs on all modern platforms. By integrating ease-of-use, clarity

in coding, enterprise application connectivity and rapid application

design, Python is an ideal programming platform for todays IT

challenges.

More information, including the Python source code and binaries for

Linux and Windows, are available at http://www.python.org.

**About Jython**

Jython is an implementation of the Python programming language written

in 100% pure Java. It provides the flexibility and interactive

scriptability of Python to the world of Java.

More information, including the Jython source code and executables for

all major Java Virtual Machines, is available at

http://www.jython.org.

**About Zope**

Zope is a leading open source application server, specializing in

content management, portals, and custom applications. Since Zope

Corporation introduced Zope as an open source product in 1998, it has

become the platform of choice for content publishers, managers and

application developers. Zope comes with complete source code, most of

which is written in Python.

More information, including the Zope source code and binaries for

Linux and Windows, are available at http://www.zope.org.

Python, Jython and Zope are maintained and enhanced in open source

fashion by an international community of programmers and companies.

Contacts

EuroPython Conference Team

P3B c/o Aragne

Boulevard Général Michel 1E

B-6000 Charleroi.

Conference Organization: mailto:europython@p3b.org

International Contacts

* Belgium

* Denis Frère, mailto:denis@aragne.com, tel: +32(0)479.651.442

* Tom Deprez, mailto:tom@aragne.com, tel: +32(0)2.479.63.88

* France

* Nicolas Chauvat, mailto:nicolas.chauvat@logilab.fr, tel:

+33(0)1.45.32.03.12

* Germany

* Marc-Andre Lémburg, mailto:mal@egenix.com, tel:

+49(0)211.9304112

* Netherlands

* Martijn Faassen, mailto:faassen@vet.uu.nl, tel:

+31(0)10.243.7051

* United Kingdom

* Andy Robinson, mailto:andy@reportlab.com , tel:

+44(0)7976.355742

* Tim Couper, mailto:tim@2wave.net, tel: +44 (0)1582 463120

Anonymous Reader writes: “May 22 marks the official release of Sony’s PS2 Linux kit in North America and Europe. To give you something to do while waiting for your package to arrive in the mail, Codingstyle has conducted an interview with several people in the PS2 development community, including two people from Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. (SCEA) and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Ltd. (SCEE), as well as official kit and PS2DEV hobbyists.”

Marcin Kurzawa writes: “CryptoHeaven Announces New Version 2.0 .
======================================

CryptoHeaven software v2.0 is available for immediate download from the website. The new software can be installed directly over the previous version. Download the software from:
http://www.cryptoheaven.com/Download/Download.htm

Existing CryptoHeaven users running Linux can download the minimum update: http://www.cryptoheaven.com/Download/Files/CryptoH eaven.tar.gz

New Features

• 1) Support for external email. You now get your own CryptoHeaven email address.
• 2) Improved user interface. The new version is now much more user friendly and includes guiding templates.
• 3) Numerous usability enhancements.
• 4) Instant Messaging enhancements including improved user interaction.
• 5) Improved connectivity. The software is now more resistant to poor internet connectivity.
• 6) Many other smaller changes and updates.

CryptoHeaven Secure Online Services – Benefits for Business Customers
===============

CryptoHeaven is particularly well suited for businesses sending sensitive documents between corporate offices or between business partners. All your messages and documents can be accessed securely from any computer connected to the Internet like your home and office PC. Consider using CryptoHeaven for sending all your important documents and save a lot of time and money.

Use CryptoHeaven technology to replace overnight deliveries or registered mail. There is no longer an excuse for late and expensive deliveries. It only takes a minute to send your document, and it can be received right away – even around the globe.

It is absurd to go through the expense and time cost of copying inherently digital material to a physical media and delivering it through a courier or mail. CryptoHeaven knows that, and so do you. CryptoHeaven technology offers you peace of mind, consider the following:

• a) Automatic end-to-end 256-bit encryption.
• b) Secure transmission of files of any size or type to a single user or group of users.
• c) Secure e-mail with unlimited size attachments.
• d) Automatic recipient notification.

CryptoHeaven is not just a very secure e-mail for sensitive document delivery. Use CryptoHeaven for all your important communications. All CryptoHeaven clients have access to the following services from an easy to use interface:

• a) Secure file sharing.
• b) Secure online storage.
• c) Secure instant messaging.

Everyone knows the benefits of e-mail for sending casual messages. CryptoHeaven allows you to extend that convenience to sending sensitive business correspondence knowing it will not be intercepted – ever!

Now you have the power to send any electronic document via CryptoHeaven to anyone, no matter what the content. You no longer have to worry about your messages ending up in your competitor’s, news reporter’s, government’s or anyone else’s hands.

For more information, visit us at http://www.cryptoheaven.com/“

The deadline for losing the “upgrade discount” with MS software is coming up, and most customers are flirting with the idea of passing on it, according to this report at The Register.

Chris DiBona has an article on Slashdot in which he takes an alternative position on the RealNames demise. He says RealNames offered him the “Linux” Real Name for a cool million, but he didn’t bite. That Chris. He’s such a Name dropper.

Perhaps the HP-Compaq merger will bring unexpected benefits to Linux, as displayed in this report about the discontinuance of Tru64, and the resulting actions of the agricultural research companies who’ve depended on it. More at IDG.net.

This is the GNOME Summary for 2002-05-05 – 2002-05-18.

==============================================================
Table of Contents
--------------------------------------------------------------

1. GNOME 2 beta 5 released
2. First Galeon2 release getting closer
3. Telsa gives you the inside information of GUADEC 3
4. www.gnomedesktop.com
5. Freedesktop.org picking up steam
6. GNOME Office continues integration effort
7. Abiword picking up new fans
8. GNOME 2 in Hindi
9. New nautilus page
10. Translated GNOME summaries
11. Hacker Activity
12. Gnome Bug Hunting Activity
13. New and Updated Software

==============================================================
1. GNOME 2 beta 5 released
--------------------------------------------------------------

The GNOME community proudly announced yet another
GNOME 2 beta release
this week. Critical and not so critical bugs continue
getting slayed at
high speed. Check below for Release Notes and download
location. Also
for people wanting to test out GNOME 2 remember that
both Garnome easy
to use buildsystem and the Ximian GNOME 2 Snapshot
RPMS for Red Hat are
good alternatives. 

        
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/pre-gnome2/releases/gnome-2.0-desktop-beta5/READM
E
        
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/pre-gnome2/releases/gnome-2.0-desktop-beta5/
        http://www.gnome.org/~jdub/garnome/

==============================================================
2. First Galeon2 release getting closer
--------------------------------------------------------------

Rumours say that Marco is planning to make the first
beta release of
Galeon2 soon. Galeon2 is using the GNOME2 plattform
and Mozilla using
GTK+ 2. While there still are some bugs that needs to
be worked out more
and more of the users and developers are now able to
compile and run the
new version. A little sneak preview provided below
with anti-aliasing
and everything :). 

        
http://www.planetasur.com/hattrick/Screenshot.png

==============================================================
3. Telsa gives you the inside information of GUADEC 3
--------------------------------------------------------------

Telsa Gwynne has made a website with her impressions
and innsights from
GUADEC 3. The page includes some nice summaries of the
talks Telsa
attented there. So if you missed this years GUADEC
this is your chance
to get up to date again. 

        
http://www.linux.org.uk/~telsa/Trips/guadeciii.html

==============================================================
4. www.gnomedesktop.com
--------------------------------------------------------------

We might have mentioned this in a previous issue, but
some things just
deserves to be brought back into the limelight from
time to time. The
story is that if you want more GNOME related news than
we are able to
bring you through the summaries or Gnotices there is a
very nice site
dedicated to GNOME news called gnomedesktop.com. Be
sure to check it
out. 

        http://www.gnomedesktop.com

==============================================================
5. Freedesktop.org picking up steam
--------------------------------------------------------------

GNOME and KDE cooperation has for a long time being
something many
people have talked about, but few has done anything
about. Well seems
like some people got fed up with that and starting
doing something and
there are now several issues being worked on under the
freedesktop.org
banner. Havoc Pennington is working to push the new
.desktop and menu
setup system forward as illustrated in this mail. 

        
http://lists.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2002-May/msg00271.htmlJens
Finke has been working on a thumbnail Managing
standard which is now
starting to get implemented, Gimp being one of the
first projects out. 
        
https://listman.redhat.com/pipermail/xdg-list/2002-April/000296.html

Owen Taylor posted the XEmbed draft to the list as
shown in link below. 
       
https://listman.redhat.com/pipermail/xdg-list/2002-April/000356.html
        
https://listman.redhat.com/pipermail/xdg-list/2002-April/000378.html

Alex Larsson is pushing an Icon theme standard forward
as seen in the
mail below 
        
https://listman.redhat.com/pipermail/xdg-list/2002-April/000389.htmlThomas
Leonard is working on a standard for a Shared
MIME-info Database. 

        http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~tal00r/info.html

==============================================================
6. GNOME Office continues integration effort
--------------------------------------------------------------

The GNOME Office suite hackers is continuing their
integration work. The
latest effort now is Abiword and GtkMathView
integration in order to
give Abiword the ability to render MathML. This comes
in addition to the
earlier mentioned efforts which have given you Abiword
in Evolution,
Abiword in Gnumeric and Gnumeric in Nautilus as shown
in the screenshots
below. 

       
http://www.abisource.com/mailinglists/abiword-dev/02/May/0369.html
http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/~msevior/abiword/evolution-abi2.png
http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/~msevior/abiword/abi-in-gnumeric.png
http://www.gnome.org/~michael/nautilus-gnumeric.png

==============================================================
7. Abiword picking up new fans
--------------------------------------------------------------

Abiword got some good press this week with MSNBC doing
a positive
review. Who know maybe Microsoft will soon start using
Abiword
internally :). For those of us who like to follow
Abiword development
more closely another issue of the Abiword Weekly News
is out, links
below. 

        
http://www.msnbc.com/news/751496.asp?0si=-&cp1=1
        
http://www.abisource.org/information/news/2002/awn92.phtml

==============================================================
8. GNOME 2 in Hindi
--------------------------------------------------------------

The improved support for non-western languages is one
of the most
important additions to the GNOME 2 plattform. This
addtion is now
becoming more tangible with translators working hard.
This week we bring
you some screenshots of the nice looking Hindi
translation of GNOME. 

        http://indlinux.sourceforge.net/hindi/gnome/
        
http://indlinux.sourceforge.net/hindi/gnome/mainmenu1.jpg

==============================================================
9. New nautilus page
--------------------------------------------------------------

The Nautilus file manager has been getting a lot of
attention from the
hackers in preparation for GNOME 2. Everyone who has
tried Nautilus for
GNOME 2 is impressed with the improved speed of this
incarnation. Yet
Nautilus have been missing a central page where people
can go for
information. To help with that I have put up a page
linking to the most
important Nautilus resources and also writen a
tutorial for creating
Nautilus themes. 

        http://www.gnome.org/projects/nautilus

==============================================================
10. Translated GNOME summaries
--------------------------------------------------------------

This week another translation joins the GNOME
Summaries family,
Portuguese. Brazilian Portuguese to be exact. So we
now have French,
Spanish, Hungarian, Korean and Portuguese - all the
links below. 

        http://www.gynov.org/news/index.php4
        http://es.gnome.org/actualidad/
        
http://cactus.rulez.org/projects/gnome/summary/
        http://developer.gnome.or.kr/news/
        http://debian-br.cipsga.org.br/resumo-gnome/

==============================================================
11. Hacker Activity
--------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for Paul Warren for these lists.

Most active modules:
 71 gtk+
 65 gnome-control-center
 56 evolution
 54 galeon
 52 gimp
 51 gnucash
 48 ORBit2
 45 gnome-applets
 43 dia
 38 gdm2
 37 gnome-panel
 36 gok
 34 gnomemeeting
 33 pan
 32 nautilus
 31 libgnomeprintui
 30 gnumeric
 29 libgda
 26 balsa
 25 glib
[149 active modules omitted]

Most active hackers:
 77 kmaraas
 63 owen
 54 pablo
 41 murrayc
 38 hp
 38 jirka
 37 dtb
 37 stano
 36 jberkman
 36 fejj
 34 rodrigo
 32 neo
 31 michael
 27 chyla
 27 warlord (gnucash)
 26 andersca
 25 gman
 25 timj
 25 menthos
 23 olau
[157 active hackers omitted]


==============================================================
12. Gnome Bug Hunting Activity
--------------------------------------------------------------

This information is from http://bugzilla.gnome.org,
which hosts bug and
feature reports for most of the Gnome modules. If you
would like to join
the bug hunt, subscribe to the gnome-bugsquad mailing
list.

Currently open: 6805 (In the last week: New: 754,
Resolved: 888,
Difference: 
-134)

Modules with the most open bugs (excluding enhancement
requests): 

  nautilus: 859 (In the last week: New: 57, Resolved:
167, Difference:
-110)
  gtk+: 516 (In the last week: New: 44, Resolved: 52,
Difference: -8)
  gnome-core: 290 (In the last week: New: 63,
Resolved: 34, Difference:
+29)
  gnome-vfs: 260 (In the last week: New: 9, Resolved:
10, Difference:
-1)
  galeon: 238 (In the last week: New: 101, Resolved:
86, Difference:
+15)
  GIMP: 196 (In the last week: New: 26, Resolved: 23,
Difference: +3)
  control-center: 187 (In the last week: New: 36,
Resolved: 65,
Difference: -29)
  gnome-applets: 170 (In the last week: New: 26,
Resolved: 36,
Difference: -10)
  sawfish: 168 (In the last week: New: 16, Resolved:
10, Difference: +6)
  gnome-panel: 149 (In the last week: New: 54,
Resolved: 53, Difference:
+1)
  gnome-pilot: 144 (In the last week: New: 22,
Resolved: 0, Difference:
+22)
  balsa: 128 (In the last week: New: 15, Resolved: 6,
Difference: +9)
  medusa: 127 (In the last week: New: 1, Resolved: 0,
Difference: +1)
  gnome-utils: 84 (In the last week: New: 10,
Resolved: 10, Difference:
0)
  Gnumeric: 78 (In the last week: New: 12, Resolved:
14, Difference: -2)
  
Gnome Bugzilla users who resolved or closed the most
bugs: 
  
  louie@ximian.com: 148 bugs closed.
  yaneti@declera.com: 81 bugs closed.
  Uraeus@linuxrising.org: 63 bugs closed.
  otaylor@redhat.com: 60 bugs closed.
  bordoley@msu.edu: 56 bugs closed.
  tester@videotron.ca: 47 bugs closed.
  hp@redhat.com: 39 bugs closed.
  dsandras@seconix.com: 34 bugs closed.
  michael@ximian.com: 29 bugs closed.
  kmaraas@gnome.org: 27 bugs closed.
  kfv101@psu.edu: 26 bugs closed.
  jacob@ximian.com: 20 bugs closed.
  charles@rebelbase.com: 20 bugs closed.
  jody@gnome.org: 19 bugs closed.
  shane.oconnor@ireland.sun.com: 19 bugs closed.
  
==============================================================
13. New and Updated Software
--------------------------------------------------------------

oggdoctor  - ogg/vorbis toolbox
gtkgrepmail  - Support for both local mailboxes and
remote
File Roller  - File Roller is an archive manager.
gThumb  - Image viewer and browser.
Atomix  - A mind game about atoms and molecules.
rubrica  - address book, pim
gnochive  - front-end for all common archivers
Balsa  - Gnome Mail Client
gmyclient  - access your mysql
Glitter Binary Newsreader  - Newsgroup binary grabber
GTablature  - Tablature editor in Python
bond  - Rapid application development
Greenwich  - Whois client for GNOME
GNOME Terminal  - terminal console app
gtkmm2  - GTK+ C++ binding
gcompris  - education games canvas kids children
gedit  - Lightweight UTF-8 text editor
Gnotide  - Tidal analysis software.
Cream (for Vim)  - Usability project for GUI Vim
Gnome Chemistry Utils  - chemical widgets for gnome-2
GtkDatabox  - Fast display of numerical data
Elysium Download  - Download Manager for GNOME
GtkDatabox  - Fast display of numerical data
Abiword  - Word Processor
gael  - Electronic Design Automation
xmms-applet  - tiny xmms applet
gramps  - GNOME based genealogy program
oggdoctor  - ogg/vorbis toolbox
Gnome Predict  - Real time satellite tracking program.
power-applet  - APM/ACPI battery applet
Enlightened Sound Daemon  - sound server
MrProject  - Project management application
Yelp  - Help browser for GNOME 2.0

For more information on these packages visit the GNOME
Software map: 
http://www.gnome.org/softwaremap/latest.php

Another two weeks with the GNOME 2 steam engine
rolling forward. Lots of
porting, polishing and bugfixing action going on. The
GNOME hackers
still need your help with identifying bugs, remember a
bug that isn't in
bugzilla don't exist :) 

Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller 
gnome-summary@gnome.org 

Sean writes “Netraverse recently started shipping Win4Lin 4.0, the Virtual Machine/WINE hybrid that is able to run Windows 9x/ME under Linux in native speeds. The new version includes support for up to 128 MB of dedicated Windows memory, easy resizing of the Win4Lin window, support for WinME & wheel mice and more. OSNews has the review and screenshots.”

– By Dee-Ann LeBlanc –

Okay, I admit it, when someone tells me to go out and play games as
part of my work, I’m not going to argue. That doesn’t mean that I
don’t take reviews involving games seriously, however. TransGaming
Technologies has a specific list of games WineX 2.0 supports, so I sat
down and compared my game collection with the list, and was pleased to
find that I have games that are on multiple points between “works well”
(ranking of 5) and “doesn’t work” (ranking of 0).
Let’s remember, though, that this article isn’t actually about the games
at all. WineX 2.0 is meant to allow us Linux folk to play certain
Windows games under Linux. While it would be nicer to have these games
in Linux-native format, I like to think of using them under emulation
as Proof of Concept — to show that we really do play games under Linux,
and that we really do play games we actually bought. After all, part
of WineX 2.0 is improved support to make sure the copy protection
mechanisms work properly.

WineX 2.0 won’t play the latest and greatest, but maybe like me, you’ll
soon find yourself getting back into DirectX 8 games you haven’t looked at in a
while.

Supported platforms

Gaming PCs tend to need higher end hardware than those used for just
word-processing. Because WineX 2.0 is an emulator, this factor raises
the hardware requirements even further. Keep this in mind when you’re
trying out this product: If it’s slow, you might need a faster CPU
and/or more RAM.

TransGaming Technologies recommends the following hardware setup:

Pentium or Athlon that’s 500MHz or faster

28MB RAM

Ideally an NVidia GeForce graphics card (for 3D accelerated games)

1 or 2GB free space for the games

See the Installation FAQ on TransGaming’s site for the latest on which cards work great and which have problems. The
software requirements are:

Most RPM and DEB-based Linux distributions

Linux kernel 2.2.x or higher

Xfree86 4.0 or higher, 4.10 preferred

glibc 2.1.3 or higher

Hardware accelerated OpenGL support

Getting WineX 2.0

You’ll have to go to the TransGaming Technologies Web site
to get WineX 2.0, though its predecessor is
available built into the Mandrake Linux 8.1 Gaming Edition. Once
there, you have two options, but I recommend that you sign up
for the TransGamer Club for $5 a month, at a minimum of $15 — doing so
gives you access to the pre-packaged binaries rather than having to
deal with the source code, and it supports the company. Even if you’re
just signing up to get WineX 2.0 and cancel this is a good deal.

Once you’ve signed up for the club, you can download TransGaming
products in a variety of pre-built packages:

Tarballs for those using distributions such as Slackware that
don’t natively support RPM or DEB.

DEB packages for the Debian and DEB-package crowd.

RPM packages for the Red Hat and RPM-package crowd.

What’s different

The WINE project itself is a free and open quasi-emulator of Microsoft Windows 3.x, 9x, and NT that enables Unix users to run a
growing variety of Microsoft Windows programs. WineX, however, is
specifically built for Linux, and has a focus on game
technology — which tends to push the envelope in using special
operating system-specific features such as DirectX.

WineX 1.0 was first announced in October 2001, when TransGaming
Technologies started working with MandrakeSoft to build the Mandrake
Linux Gaming Edition. Back then, WineX 1.0 subscribers got:

Support for 6 Windows games at playable levels: Shiny
Entertainment’s Sacrifice, EA’s American McGee’s Alice, Sierra’s
Half-Life, BioWare’s Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate 2, and
Blizzard’s Diablo 2.

Basic support for DirectX 7

Of course, there were many interim additions between the main versions,
but we don’t want to get too lost in history here. WineX 2.0 adds a
variety of features onto the original WineX that vastly improves the
list of working games:

DirectX 8 support improves 3D game performance

Improved ability to work with copy-protection schemes on some
systems

Improved full-screen play support

Mouse wheel support

Improved sound support

Support for more than 80 games at playable levels

See TransGaming Technologies’ Web site for the
full improvement and feature listings, and the list of supported
games. You’ll want to make sure that the game(s) you want to play are
on the list and ranked at a 4 or 5 before you even start this journey,
unless you want to contribute by adding a game to the list and trying
to get it properly supported.

Installing and configuring WineX 2.0

Once you’ve got the proper package type, just su to root and install
it as is appropriate with your package manager. The RPM installed
without a single complaint on my SuSE 7.3 system. That’s pretty much
it. Installing WineX 2.0 is the easy part! It’s the games that can get
tricky.

It’s important before proceeding that you go to the TransGaming
Technologies Web site and read through both the
FAQ and Forum associated with the particular game(s) you’re interested
in installing. Each game has its own unique issues with WineX 2.0 and
particular hardware types, and there are variations on the basic
installation instructions from game to game as well.

Installing Diablo 2 on Linux with WineX 2.0

Diablo 2 is listed among the games best supported by WineX 2.0
(ranked at 5). Because I just so happen to have that game lying around,
I figured that was a good place to start. After locating the
Installation FAQ in TransGaming’s Support section, I found the handy
instructions, so I put the Diablo II install disk into the CD-ROM
drive, mounted the CD-ROM onto the filesystem with the GUI mount
shortcut, and then in a terminal window typed winex Setup.exe … oops,
I got an odd error that it couldn’t find a particular library. After
digging through the Diablo II-specific forum, I saw that the error
message itself actually has an error in it. Amusing.

Turns out for Diablo II, I had to type winex /mnt/cdrom/Install.exe
before my system was happy. Because this is a review, I went for the gusto
and the full install. I have no problem with the copy protection (I’m
a good citizen, I own my copy of Diablo II, so I have a valid CD key).
Linux makes things interesting with all the CD swapping that has to be
done for a full Diablo II installation, because I had to unmount and
mount each time I swap CDs.

Ironically, my test Linux box is the same machine I originally
installed Diablo II on in Windows, and the installation took just as
long here as I remember it taking then. I got the Play window, but
that wouldn’t work here, so I closed it, and it turned out that
hidden behind the Play window was a dialog box to test my video.
That’s fine, and I passed with flying colors and a few clicks and black
screens. I chose the 3D mode of course, and the configuration
seemed to be done.

Playing Diablo II on Linux with WineX 2.0 in 3D

Back to the Installation FAQ, and the Diablo II Play CD — be sure to
have the Play CD in the CD-ROM drive when you try to start this game
in WineX 2.0, or the program just exits with no errors. I changed
directories from where I installed the RPM
to TransGaming_Drive/Program Files/Diablo II, and then typed winex
Game.exe to start Diablo II.

It eventually came up … let’s just say that this machine is a
450MHz, and you should really listen to the TransGaming folks’
recommendation of a machine 500MHz or faster! The movie played fine but
the game was jerky and unplayable, sometimes taking five seconds or more
to react to a movement of the mouse. But, I noticed that the FAQ lists
problems with the ATI Rage 128, so it could just be my test machine.

So, I went over to my actual desktop box (running Red Hat 7.2) and went
through the same installation process, and everything worked exactly as
I detailed it earlier — except the install was much faster because the
CD-ROM drive is twice the speed of the first. I changed to the proper
directory and type winex Game.exe — same error as before, which I got
around again by typing winex /mnt/cdrom/Game.exe.

It took a good 30 seconds or so before anything actually happened,
and then I got a window with the Diablo II opening movie. The movie was
fine again, a little jerky here and there in the video, but the audio
was smooth. Once the game started, it was slow enough to be unplayable
again, but this time I was using a Guillemot Xentor 32 video card (this
is also a PIII 450Mz). The game audio was fine. The video and mouse were
terrible.

Giving Diablo II one more try, in 2D

I decided to give Diablo II another chance, and so I wiped the previous
installation and went with a single player install, and 2D graphics.
Doing so easily doubled the play speed, bringing me from having to
wait for my mouse pointer to move to a mostly smooth playing
experience. The game still took a good 30 seconds to start,
though.

Saving a game and returning to where you left off worked flawlessly.
The background shading for shop and inventory items based on whether
you can use them or not, and if they’re magical or not, worked fine.
The overlay map worked, as did the in-game mouseovers for creatures,
hidden items, and even the shortcut bar at the bottom. I could even use
my preferred tactic of playing with the map overlay on most of the
time (I have no sense of game direction!) without problems.

Entering a dungeon was seamless. Combat worked fine, though sometimes
there was a pause while approaching the monsters — I seem to remember
having this same problem in Windows. Quests also worked, which is very
important in a game like Diablo II. The game did crash on me once or
twice even with this setup, though, taking my whole machine with it,
but not with a cause I could easily replicate.

Other experiments

There are enough games on the list that I actually had a couple more
to try before I was through. I installed SimCity 2000, which had a
ranking of 2 out of 5, and while the installation was flawless,
actually getting the sucker to run wasn’t going to happen. It managed
to start and gave me the function menus, but it’s hard to play with a
simulated city if there’s no window with land to build it on.

So, I gave up on that one, decided to be adventurous and try the
0-ranked Asheron’s Call. As you might imagine, that one wouldn’t even
install, but I did get a partial welcome screen with an install
button. I may be an optimist, but that doesn’t qualify as my glass
being half full.

Next, I pulled out an old one that’s not even on the list: RISK. The
InstallShield support was great, I managed to get it installed up until
a crash at the end — at least it didn’t take my whole machine with
it.

Wrapping up

I’m not going to review WineX 2.0 against any of the games that didn’t
have the ranking of 5, as I don’t think that’s fair, so I’ll stick
with WineX 2.0 and Diablo II. While my Linux boxes are 50MHz short of
the minimum recommended speed, that’s really not a significant
difference — and the machines have the required 128MB of RAM. For a
game such as Diablo II, I think the 500MHz minimum with 3D
acceleration is overly optimistic, especially when I got the same
performance with two different video cards, but the 2D performance is
just fine.

To my unrefined eye I really don’t see much of a difference between
the two (I’d need to put them side by side), especially since there
was no telling how smooth the animation was in the 3D version with the
speed problems I had. My major worry now is that I’d forgotten how
much fun Diablo II was, but I don’t have much time for games!

I don’t feel I can give WineX 2.0 too high a score, though, until
TransGaming gets its documentation better organized. I had to dig
around far too much to find the information I needed, and some of the
answers were incomplete, or conflicting.

Product: WineX 2.0
Manufacturer: TransGaming Technologies
Availability: Now
Price: $15

Ratings (out of 5 stars) :
Features: 4
Speed: 3
Value: 4
Usability: 3
Overall: 3.5

Dee-Ann LeBlanc has been writing about computers since 1994, when
she did her first computer book. Since then, she’s written 10 books,
more than 30 articles, a number of courses, and 12 presentations
(which she also presented), with most of these works involving Linux.
Her latest book is “Linux Routing” from New Riders, and you can find
out more at http://www.Dee-AnnLeBlanc.com/.

From Linux World:
“There have been plenty of bumps along the way, but Linus Torvalds thinks the evolution of his Linux operating system is going
just fine.”