Software notes

In this section we document software we have tried out, and document problems we have had with the different software packages.

Additional software to try

In deciding upon packages to include with the distribution, we had to look through many packages. We rejected a lot of good programs because they did not meet all of our criteria. However, other people might be interested in some of the interesting alternatives available for Debian.

In most cases, we just list Debian package names.

Window managers:

There are many many window managers available. Some of the ones I like are: wm2, blackbox, afterstep . You can find others in the following ways:

1. Look at the dependencies of xfree86-common.

2. Look through the X11 section of packages on http://packages.debian.org

3. Visit http://www.plig.org/xwinman/

File managers:

xnc, xfm, gentoo, gmc, rox, worker, dfm

There is a program called foXcommander that resembles Windows Explorer, but it is not available on Debian. If you want to try it, check out

http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/foxdesktop/

Password generators:

apg, pwgen, makepasswd, gpw.

I like the first two of these the best.

Package managers:

aptitude, diety, stormpkg, synaptic

I like aptitude, but it is console-based. stormpkg depends heavily on GNOME libraries, and is unusable on a machine with 16MB of RAM. synaptic is a better bet if you are looking for a graphical package manager.

You can read some hints on using the different package managers in Section 8.6

Web browsers:

There are tons of web browsers available. Some of the graphical ones I like include skipstone, opera, dillo, mozilla. Note that skipstone and mozilla are not suitable for machines with 16MB of RAM.

Good text-based browsers include lynx, w3m, links. I like w3m the best.

No list of “web browsers” is complete without mentioning without wget . This utility downloads webpages from the command line.

Text editors:

The two most popular editors are emacs and vi. Two popular flavours of emacs are xemacs, and GNU emacs. Three popular flavours of vi are vim, elvis, nvi

Beyond the big two, other popular text editors include nedit (graphical and powerful), nano (a clone of PICO, which is the text editor used in the pine e-mail program).

There are lots and lots of others. Look in the “Editors” section of
http://packages.debian.org

Drawing and Image Manipulation:

gimp is well known in the Linux world as a Photoshop clone. It is better suited to higher-end machines. xfig is an excellent two-dimensional geometric drawing program. scribus wants to be Pagemaker when it grows up.

Spreadsheets:

siag, oleo (text-based) are good alternatives to gnumeric

Word processors:

xpw, ted are both good. Both save to RTF format. The tetex-base package provides L^ATEX, which is a non-graphical typesetting system. lyx is a good L^ATEX frontend.

Music and Sound:

If you have a sound card, here is some software that you can use to take advantage of it.

• mpg123 and mpg321 are command-line MP3 players.

• cdtools is a set of command-line utilities for playing audio CDs in a CD-ROM drive.

Typing programs:

gtypist is text-based, but is fairly easy to use and works on any machine. tipptrainer is more graphical, but seems to require a large display (800x600) in order to run properly. xletters is a fun typing game; tuxtype is a fancier version of the same game that uses the SDL libraries.

Games:

Many many games are available. Many games use the SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) libraries, which make it easy for game programmers to access hardware. Unfortunately, the SDL libraries take up 15MB of storage space. Game listings with an “(SDL)” after their name depend on the SDL libraries.

Puzzle games:

Most of the pre-installed games are puzzle games. However, there are some good additions:

• frozen-bubble (SDL) is a neat Puzzle-Bobble clone.

• In mirrormagic (SDL) you redirect laser beams to solve puzzles.

• gemdropx (SDL) is a Jewels/Tetris like game where you match up blocks.

Action games:

Some of these games involve blowing things up, but in a “cutesy” way (which for some reason makes the violence less violent).

• hatman is a somewhat cute PacMan clone.

• heroes (SDL) is just weird; none of us have figured out exactly what its objective is yet - but the graphics are great!

• zblast is a space-shooter with simple graphics and great sound. It reminds me of the Sierra game Sylpheed. To use it properly on 640x480 resolution, you need to run it in “small” mode - see the manpage for more information.

• xgalaga is a clone of space shooter Galaga packaged for Linux.

• nighthawk is a clone of an odd Commodore 64 game called Paradroid. The objective is to traverse a ship by taking control of robots.

• circuslinux (check name -P.) (SDL) is a vaguely disturbing Breakout-type game where you bounce clowns around to pop balloons.

• madbomber (SDL) is a tiny little SDL game where you catch bombs in pails of water. It is not as violent as it sounds. (Nor is it a Bomberman clone.)

• xdigger is a smallish Boulderdash-type game. Run around in a maze and collect diamonds.

Simulation games:

We include both simulation games and sports games (such as they are).

• lincity is a SimCity clone that takes only 2MB of disk space. freeciv is a much bigger (and slower) Civilizations clone that probably requires more than 16MB of memory to run well.

• orbit is a space-flight/combat simulator.

• gtkpool is a pool game. (Surprise!)

Violent games:

These games are violent. Some of them depict graphic blood and gore. You have been warned.

• nethack is the most addictive game ever. Fortunately, its complicated interface and simple graphics scare people away, but it is not known as “GradeWrecker” for nothing. Roam a dungeon and kill things.

• clanbomber-x11 is a Bomberman clone. freecraft is a WarCraft clone. Both are better suited to higher end systems, but they might be playable on 16MB with a fast processor and good video card.

• xbill is the classic human-squashing game. It is a lot more fun than the similar bugsquish

• abuse-sdl (SDL) is a side-scroller ported from DOS.

• lxdoom is DOOM packaged for Linux.

• xevil is fun, but features explicit sexual and drug references in addition to splattering blood.

Unusable games:

Some games looked promising, but turned out to be unusable on our systems. Some games seem hopelessly broken (but may get better in the future) and others are just hopelessly slow.

• pingus appears to be broken, which is too bad because it promises to be a neat Lemmings clone.

• powermanga is a great vertical space-shooter - but it requires a Pentium to run. Apparently it requires 32MB of RAM to run as well, but I have gotten the game working on a machine with 16MB with few ill effects.

• chomium is supposed to be another vertical shooter, but it is way slow.

• flightgear is a flight simulator that is too slow for our server.

• tuxracer, tuxcart are slow without accelerated video cards.

• xsoldier needs a resolution higher than 800x600 to run. WINGS is another vertical space shooter that also requires a high resolution.

• pipenightdreams is a neat clone of the puzzle game PipeDreams. Unfortunately it has some bugs.

Miscellaneous:

Other neat software that is available:

• mgp, a lightweight PowerPoint-type tool.

• kali, which is used to generate tesselations (think M.C. Escher)

• octave, which advertises itself as a MATLAB clone.

• linneighborhood is a great GUI SAMBA file browser.

(Mail programs, ICQ, IRC, sound and music... -P.)