Shane Fagan

My thoughts on Games for Linux

Shane — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:21:14 +0000

I went on a quest to find an awesome game for Ubuntu. It doesnt matter how much it costs I just want an awesome game. So there are some ones that most people know about Heroes of Newerth, Nexuiz, Warsow, OpenArena, Tremulous and a load of id software games.
So we have lots but most of the good ones are first person shooters. So what about massively multiplayer online games? On windows and mac they have Wow and we can run that on wine but it isnt exactly ideal. So I went looking for some good mmorpg games and i found two games that dont look bad Neverwinter Nights and Vendetta Online. Oh and if you count Heroes of Newerth we have 3 good online multiplayer fantasy games and lots of FPS games already available.
The problem is that there isnt enough people using linux yet to justify most companies making games for Linux but its great that id software and a few other nice companies accommodate us.
So what we need is for lucid+1(10.10) we get as many good games in the software center. So commercial or free, proprietary or free software lets make everything available. Lets have some fun
EDIT: I got neverwinter nights wrong its not a MMORPG, its just a RPG. Whoops :/

Ubuntu all grown up

Shane — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:01:32 +0000

When I started using Ubuntu back in Gutsy(7.10) we looked like this.

And now we look like this.

We are getting a nice new logo too and our own font (in 10.10 for the font) so we are quickly becoming hugely competitive. On looks and hardware support alone we are up there with Apple and Microsoft but we have some cool stuff too. Ubuntu One is the thing that sets us apart. We can share our files across all our computers or share with friends, sync up notes and contacts and we will all be able to buy music soon(although you can do that with iTunes too but still its nice).
For developers since Gutsy we are after getting a lot easier with Quickly, Quickly-widgets and Desktop Couch.
One thing I have to say is ill miss the brown (ish) it was our signature for a long time and I hope that people dont knock it too much we could have had a worse colour(#3ACDA9)
So we can all be happy with the progress we are after making and congrats to everyone who made it happen.

The new Ubuntu look

Shane — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:32:51 +0000

One word….awesome. I think out of the two desktop looks they put up, my desktop is going to be the white one. I like the orange/purple/white colours a lot more than brown/orange/grey. I think the sound and networking icons look a little Mac ish but still I like it. I just hope that the icon set gets a big update a lot because it seems a little weird at the moment.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Brand

Do the language that you like

Shane — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:17:52 +0000

I was looking at some of the comments on Seif’s blog post and I thought that something needs to be addressed.

1. C is an awesome language and its very very fast but its not the easiest to learn.
2. Python and Ruby are easy to learn but not fast.

Some people suggested moving all the work that Zeitgeist have done so far (and its a lot at this stage) and port it to Vala or C. It would be not only lots of work but why bother, we are going into a new era of computing, one that the languages dont exactly matter because computers are getting faster. Python doesnt need to be the fastest it just needs to be nice to program in. C will be the fastest language for a long time because its the most mature, its older then me (which isnt saying much, a lot of languages are older than me) but outside of college work or maybe helping out with bugs I dont plan on using C because its not programmer friendly. (I might use Vala when it matures but that wont be for a year or two)

We will get more developers if we advertise that all programmers are welcome here. In the repo we have almost every language in use today. If your a Mac developer we have Objective-C, if your a Windows developer we have C# and VB.Net, if your a web developer you can use JavaScript with Gnome-Shell, if you dont know how to program yet then we have lots of Python tutorials around for opportunistic developer week. So go out and have fun

Im back

Shane — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:16:38 +0000

Ok I was on a break for a while I still was testing lucid out and filing bugs but I was trying to ignore email and trying not to go onto IRC. So I was gone for a few weeks and ill start to get back to getting busy again. Im still busy with college too but ill be a lot more available again so more blogging, QA and maybe I might do a little more triaging if I have time. Ill try to do some more Ubuntu Irish translations work too because I havent been giving it enough attention.
So I cant wait to get back to it.

Archive cruft

Shane — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:03:01 +0000

I was on #ubuntu-motu today and a person asked if there was a policy for removing programs from the archive. They wanted to know if we could remove a program that hasnt had a release in years and the functionality is included in other programs so its completely superseded. This got me thinking maybe we should do some checking what programs are not being used or maintained that need to be scrubbed from the archive.
The main reason why this is a good thing is that if its in the software center and its a very bad program it reflects badly on the OS in general if new users install it. Just a thought
Maybe its something MOTU can look into for lucid+1.

Lucid new icons :)

Shane — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:01:21 +0000

I love the new icons but one thing struck me. Have a look at this picture

Everything else monochrome and nice but the map blue and the clock purple and the house red. Great icons though

Pitivi Bug Day February 11

Shane — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:15:13 +0000

Fellow Ubuntu Triagers!

This week’s Bug Day target is *drum roll please* Pitivi!
* #16 New bugs need a hug
* #8 Incomplete bugs need a status check
* #8 Confirmed bugs need a review
* #1 Bug to be forwarded Upstream

Pitivi is a video editor that is being included by default in the next version of Ubuntu (Lucid Lynx). So its very important that we hug some bugs in preparation. Issues that you should look out for is older bugs that dont effect the current version.

Bookmark it, add it to your calendars, turn over those egg-timers!
* February 11th
* https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay/20100211

Are you looking for a way to start giving some love back to your
adorable Ubuntu Project?
Did you ever wonder what Triage is? Want to learn about that?
This is a perfect time!, Everybody can help in a Bug Day!
open your IRC Client and go to #ubuntu-bugs (FreeNode)
the BugSquad will be happy to help you to start contributing!

Wanna be famous? Is easy! remember to use 5-A-day so if you do a good
work your name could be listed at the top 5-A-Day Contributors in the
Ubuntu Hall of Fame page!

We are always looking for new tasks or ideas for the Bug Days, if you have one
add it to the Planning page https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay/Planning

If you’re new to all this, head to

http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs

Have a nice day,
Shane Fagan

[From the BugSquad]

Open sourcing proprietary software projects

Shane — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:30:44 +0000

In Ireland we have a special relationship with software we see the goodness but politicians dont have a clue how to make sure they get delivery on the sanctioned software systems. There have been a few systems an e-voting system and PPARS(its a payroll system for the medical service) both cost a half a billion to develop and neither are being used.
This is where proprietary software failed badly so why not open source the software (for PPARS not the e-voting) and let the community fix the problem? No matter how complex the system needs to be I cant see how any company can get away with nearly €200 million and not deliver on a product.
Why not open source all failed software projects that wont see the light of day? How many games a year get cut half way through development and never get played? The answer is lots and lots of them. How about really old games (around 15-20+ years old) and open sourcing them? No one makes money on them so who is it harming? In fact we can give a new lease on life for lots of projects and I think its sad that we the community arent being considered at all. A game I would love to have a crack at porting to linux is the original Fallout game.

Indicator and me menu, lucid looking awesome

Shane — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:43:30 +0000

Ive been testing out lucid since a little before alpha 1 and all is well from what I can see. What landed recently was the me menu and I have say that its cool.

I love the idea of posting to twitter on the fly from the desktop rather than waiting for Gwibber to load up(which takes a good 20 secs ish on my machine). Oh and the new version of Gwibber from the daily ppa looks awesome.
Some extra things to look forward to is the new indicators, an improved software center, Pitivi and the music store. I cant wait to try out the music store which should land alpha 3(ish) but what songs should I buy…? And will Severed Fifth’s album be available? (kidding its free go get it if you want)