Yet another week has passed, so it’s time for another week in review – the 8th instalment already. This week was marked by the realisation that Qemu and DOSBox on mobile phones are cool, that Apple is working hard on Safari 4, and that Microsoft appears to be more concerned about Linux than about Apple. And, of course, Haiku got Flash. This week’s My Take is about zombies.
Week in Review
The biggest news this week is of course that Haiku got Flash support Apple released the first beta release of Safari 4, for both Windows and Mac OS X. Packed with a literally insane amount of improvements, people commended the browser for its speed and excellent standards compliance. The interface changes, however, were met with a lot of resistance, with several articles noting the various shortcomings. Quickly, it became clear that the traditional layout could be restored with a few terminal commands, so let’s hope Apple will add a little checkbox for this in the settings panel.
This week we also realised that Qemu and DOSBox are pretty neat tools for doing all sorts of useless things with mobile phones. DOSBox allows you to run Windows 3.1 on Symbian devices, and Qemu to run System 7 on your iPhone. While the usefulness is pretty much non-existent, we did get to discuss beer and girls for once on OSAlert. We’re flexible like that.
Another interesting bit this month was that Steve Ballmer explained that Microsoft sees Linux as a bigger threat to the company than Apple. Microsoft thinks that Linux has a higher market share than Apple on the desktop, which could be true if you look at the worldwide market. Despite this, Microsoft still sees piracy as its biggest competitor.
We also found out that Haiku got Flash support through a port of Gnash, and that Xfce released version 4.6.0 of their Gtk+ desktop, packed with changes, fixes, and new features. We also got a few glimpses into the future of Chrome, and Microsoft detailed some of the changes between the windows 7 beta and the upcoming RC.
My Take: OMG zombies!!1!! Oh noes!!1
I can’t imagine that it took Valve too much time, imagination, and resources to slap Left 4 Dead together. Despite the total lack of a story or any form of depth or character development, Left 4 Dead surprised me by being so much fun to play.
A good friend of mine owns an Xbox 360 just like I do, and we decided to be on the lookout for a multiplayer game we both liked so we could play together. Since the game I’m waiting for has been delayed for 2 months (Sacred 2), now seemed like as good a time as ever to both buy Left 4 Dead, and enjoy some decent zombie killing fun on XBox Live.
I’m going to review the game properly for OSAlert once he and I complete the four campaigns on expert mode (at which point my social life will probably resemble a dead squirrel), but there are a few things I’d like to say already. First, the game’s performance is very, very good. You can have 50-70 zombies running towards you, but there’s no choppiness or lag – probably thanks to the old but tried and true Source engine. In any case, the game remains smooth at all times.
Second, this is the first FPS game on the console that didn’t make me long for a more precise aiming instrument. The game’s movements are so smooth that aiming with the analog stick is very, very comfortable. It remains a mystery to me why high-profile games like Fallout 3 can’t achieve the level of movement smoothness that Left 4 Dead displays.
Third, it sucks having to pay to play online. I know this keeps console prices down, but gaming is already expensive enough (64 EUR for a new game, like Left 4 Dead), but paying for online play just irks me.
In any case, I can recommend Left 4 Dead. Maybe we should set up an OSAlert lobby one of these days?
I wish they’d just hurry up and release Half Life 2 Episode 3. Would be nice to finish that particular story line out.
Here here!
Erm, I’m pretty sure it’s the DOSbox which run Win 3.1 not the Qemu. Or did I miss something?
As far as I know, it was a heavily modified Dosbox. There is a comment in the comment section with a download link for the Dosbox in question.
Dosbox and Qemu just have very different goals. The former tries to emulate the minimum needed to run DOS applications and games, but does that as well as it can. Qemu on the other hand tries to emulate the whole computer and everything possible, and also emulates a range of different CPUs.
Yup, you’re right, fixed it in the article. Thanks.
It got a little late last night
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Buy a PS3
It also has Linux (Best Game EVER!), MGS4, Killzone2, Little Big Planet etc.
And small controllers with rechargeable batteries, Wifi,Blu-Ray, upgradable harddrive and near silent operation.
Xbox is just cheap.
I want large controllers, and the ability to stuff normal, AA batteries in them. I don’t like recharge packs or fixed batteries.
And yes, the XBox is cheap. I guess that’s why it runs circles around the overpowered, overcomplicated, and overpriced PS3 in all the sales stats
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The PS3 is cool, but too expensive for me.
Well I recently got myself an XBox 360 aswell, mainly because my PS2’s drive died and I need my Pro Evolution Soccer tournament fix every sunday (family gathering traditional thing). I’ve heard alot of horror stories about hardware problems with X360 but sofar everything has been dandy, guess in that respect it pays to be late in the game. I thought about going for the PS3, but atleast here in Sweden, PS3 was more expensive so a 360 it is and I’m certainly satisfied with it.
Anyway, it’s not like you can go wrong no matter which system you choose this time around, since they all will be plenty supported until they are eclipsed by the next generation of consoles. For once there’s no loser (although Nintendo’s Wii seems to be the clear winner)
Thom Holwerda wrote:
–“And yes, the XBox is cheap. I guess that’s why it runs circles around the overpowered, overcomplicated, and overpriced PS3 in all the sales stats”
Actually atleast in Japan XBox360 is doing really badly, so it’s certainly not running circles around PS3 in ‘all the sales stats’ as you claimed (in fact in this instance it’s quite the opposite). And it’s not as if Japan is a small console market either. But also in Japan, Wii is the dominant console. I wonder if we will ever see another PS2 in terms of market domination, I personally hope not as I’m a strong believer in competition yielding better products.
When the PS3 first came out, I thought it looked like a shiny version of the old modems you used to have to connect to your computer for dial-up.
I personally don’t own anything except for a Game Cube, which I hardly ever use and usually only use for Mario Kart. I’ve got all the old Super and original Nintendo games emulated on my computer, though, not to mention a few GBA and N64. That’s where it’s at. Ah, classics.
Especially the 8-bit classics. Super Mario 3 still is genius.
Of course pirated windows is windows largest competitor. The path of least resistance is still running some version of MS OS.
It might pay in the long run to bite the bullet and migrate your hole shop to another platform, but no one will do that until the incentive is large enough. If you are okay with stealing software, then that’s much cheaper then breaking out of vendor lock-in.
In other words, the best way of promoting OSS software, is fighting software piracy.
Edited 2009-03-01 23:57 UTC
Have you ever noticed that when people say “literally” they almost always mean figuratively?
Sooner or later, we may get a “This week my take is about me!” LOL
i really hope the LOL wasn’t part of that sentence.
QEMU doesn’t run System 7 either, because it doesn’t emulate the 68K processor required to run it, it’s just a hoax made with screenshots from Mini vMac (note the v in the floppy disk icon).
Mini vMac has been out for the iPhone since November 2008, http://namedfork.net/iphone/minivmac, and isn’t related in any way with macosiphone.co.cc
It’s sad to see so many people fall for some screenshots.