1 Apocalypse Now 8.5 1979 drama, war
2 Avatar 7.9 2009 action, adventure, fantasy, sci_fi
3 A Bridge Too Far 7.3 1977 drama, history, war
4 A Streetcar Named Desire 8 1951 drama
5 Alien 8.5 1979 horror, sci_fi
6 Aliens 8.5 1986 action, adventure, sci_fi, thriller
7 Alien³ 6.4 1992 action, sci_fi, thriller
8 AVP: Alien vs. Predator 5.4 2004 action, adventure, sci_fi
9 Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem 4.7 2007 action, horror, sci_fi, thriller
10 An American Werewolf in London 7.5 1981 horror
11 Band of Brothers 9.5 2001 action, drama, history, war
12 Battlestar Galactica 8.7 2004 action, adventure, drama, sci_fi
13 Battlestar Galactica 8.4 2003 action, adventure, drama, sci_fi
14 Black Rain 6.5 1989 action, crime, drama, thriller
15 Blade Runner 8.3 1982 drama, sci_fi, thriller
16 Dracula 7.4 1992 drama, fantasy, horror, romance
17 The Brides of Dracula 6.8 1960 horror
18 Centennial 7.6 1978 action, adventure, drama, romance, western
19 Collateral 7.6 2004 crime, drama, thriller
20 Curse of the Demon 7.6 1957 horror
21 Daybreakers 6.4 2009 action, drama, horror, sci_fi, thriller
22 The Deer Hunter 8.2 1978 drama, war
23 Defiance 7.1 2008 action, drama, history, thriller, war
24 Dirty Harry 7.8 1971 action, crime, thriller
25 The Dirty Dozen 7.8 1967 action, drama, war
26 Horror of Dracula 7.4 1958 horror
27 Dracula 6.2 1979 horror, romance
28 Dracula Has Risen from the Grave 6.4 1968 drama, fantasy, horror, romance
29 Dracula A.D. 1972 5.6 1972 fantasy, horror
30 Dracula: Prince of Darkness 6.6 1966 horror
31 East of Eden 7.9 1955 drama, romance
32 Enemy at the Gates 7.5 2001 drama, history, thriller, war
33 Firefox 5.7 1982 action, thriller, sci_fi
34 Flags of Our Fathers 7.1 2006 drama, history, war
35 Fright Night 6.9 1985 comedy, horror, thriller
36 Fright Night 6.4 2011 comedy, horror
37 The Godfather 9.2 1972 crime, drama
38 The Godfather: Part II 9 1974 crime, drama
39 The Godfather: Part III 7.6 1990 crime, drama, mystery, thriller
40 Halloween 7.9 1978 horror, thriller
41 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 7.3 2007 adventure, family, fantasy, mystery
42 Hide and Seek 5.7 2005 horror, mystery, thriller
43 How the West Was Won 7 1962 western
44 Independence Day 6.8 1996 action, sci_fi
45 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 7.6 1984 action, adventure
46 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 8.3 1989 action, adventure
47 Raiders of the Lost Ark 8.6 1981 action, adventure
48 Inception 8.8 2010 action, adventure, mystery, sci_fi, thriller
49 Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles 7.5 1994 horror, romance
50 Iron Man 2 7 2010 action, adventure, sci_fi
51 It's a Wonderful Life 8.6 1946 drama, family, fantasy
52 Jonny Quest 7.7 1964 animation, action, adventure, family, sci_fi
53 Jurassic Park 8 1993 adventure, sci_fi
54 Kelly's Heroes 7.5 1970 action, adventure, comedy, war
55 The War 8.2 2007 documentary, war
56 The Civil War 8.8 1990 documentary, history, war
57 Lawrence of Arabia 8.4 1962 adventure, biography, drama, history, war
58 Live Free or Die Hard 7.3 2007 action, crime, thriller
59 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 8.8 2001 action, adventure, fantasy
60 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 8.9 2003 action, adventure, fantasy
61 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 8.7 2002 action, adventure, fantasy
62 Dr. No 7.3 1962 action, adventure, crime, thriller
63 Goldfinger 7.8 1964 action, adventure, crime, thriller
64 From Russia with Love 7.5 1963 action, adventure, crime, thriller
65 Magnum Force 7.1 1973 action, crime, mystery, thriller
66 The Matrix Reloaded 7.1 2003 action, sci_fi
67 The Matrix Revolutions 6.6 2003 action, adventure, sci_fi
68 Marley & Me 6.9 2008 comedy, drama, family, romance
69 Men of Honor 6.9 2000 biography, drama
70 This Is It 7.1 2009 documentary, music
71 Minority Report 7.6 2002 action, mystery, sci_fi, thriller
72 Mirrors 6 2008 horror, mystery, thriller
73 Mr. Deeds 5.6 2002 comedy
74 Monty Python's Flying Circus 8.9 1969 comedy, music
75 The Mummy 6.9 1999 action, adventure, fantasy
76 The Mummy Returns 6.2 2001 action, adventure, fantasy
77 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor 5.1 2008 action, adventure, fantasy, thriller
78 My Fair Lady 7.8 1964 drama, family, musical, romance
79 Christmas Vacation 7.4 1989 comedy
80 Pale Rider 7.2 1985 western
81 The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes 7.2 1970 adventure, comedy, crime, mystery, romance, thriller
82 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 8 2003 action, adventure, fantasy
83 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest 7.2 2006 action, adventure, fantasy
84 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 7 2007 action, adventure, fantasy
85 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 6.6 2011 action, adventure, fantasy
86 Rebel Without a Cause 7.8 1955 drama, romance
87 The Satanic Rites of Dracula 5.3 1973 horror
88 Saving Private Ryan 8.6 1998 action, drama, war
89 Scars of Dracula 6.2 1970 horror
90 Seabiscuit 7.3 2003 drama, history, sport
91 Sherlock Holmes 7.5 2009 action, adventure, crime, mystery, thriller
92 Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady 5.3 1991 crime, drama, mystery, thriller
93 The Pearl of Death 7.2 1944 crime, drama, mystery, thriller
94 Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour 5.5 1931 crime, mystery
95 Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon 6.6 1942 adventure, crime, drama, mystery, thriller
96 Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror 6.6 1942 crime, thriller, mystery
97 The Woman in Green 6.7 1945 mystery
98 Sherlock Holmes Faces Death 7 1943 crime, mystery, thriller
99 Shutter Island 8 2010 drama, mystery, thriller
100 Sleepy Hollow 7.4 1999 adventure, mystery
101 Space Ghost Coast to Coast 7.8 1994 animation, comedy, sci_fi, talk_show
102 Spider-Man 7.3 2002 action, fantasy
103 Spider-Man 2 7.4 2004 action, adventure, fantasy
104 Spider-Man 3 6.2 2007 action, adventure, fantasy
105 The Sopranos 9.1 1999 crime, drama
106 Star Trek 8.3 1966 action, adventure, sci_fi
107 Star Trek 8 2009 action, adventure, sci_fi
108 Star Trek: The Motion Picture 6.3 1979 adventure, mystery, sci_fi
109 Star Trek: The Next Generation 8.5 1987 action, adventure, sci_fi
110 Star Trek: Voyager 7.4 1995 action, adventure, sci_fi
111 Star Trek: First Contact 7.5 1996 action, adventure, sci_fi, thriller
112 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 7.7 1982 action, adventure, sci_fi, thriller
113 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home 7.2 1986 adventure, sci_fi
114 Star Trek: Generations 6.5 1994 action, adventure, sci_fi, thriller
115 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country 7.1 1991 action, adventure, sci_fi, thriller
116 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock 6.5 1984 action, adventure, sci_fi, thriller
117 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier 5.2 1989 action, adventure, sci_fi, thriller
118 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace 6.5 1999 action, adventure, fantasy, sci_fi
119 Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones 6.7 2002 action, adventure, fantasy, sci_fi
120 Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith 7.7 2005 action, adventure, fantasy, sci_fi
121 Star Wars 8.7 1977 action, adventure, fantasy, sci_fi
122 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back 8.8 1980 action, adventure, sci_fi
123 Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi 8.4 1983 action, adventure, fantasy, sci_fi
124 It 6.8 1990 drama, horror, mystery, thriller
125 State of Play 7.1 2009 drama, mystery
126 Rose Red 6.5 2002 horror, mystery, thriller
127 Silver Bullet 6.1 1985 adventure, drama, horror, mystery, thriller
128 Sudden Impact 6.5 1983 action, thriller
129 Taken 7.8 2008 action, crime, thriller
130 Taste the Blood of Dracula 6.2 1970 drama, fantasy, horror, thriller
131 The Terminator 8.1 1984 action, sci_fi
132 Terminator 2: Judgment Day 8.5 1991 action, sci_fi, thriller
133 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines 6.4 2003 action, sci_fi, thriller
134 TRON: Legacy 6.8 2010 action, adventure, sci_fi
135 True Grit 7.7 2010 adventure, drama, western
136 The Blue and the Gray 7.3 1982 drama, history, war
137 The Bourne Supremacy 7.7 2004 action, crime, thriller
138 The Changeling 7.2 1980 horror, thriller
139 The Changeling 7.1 2006 drama
140 The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer 5.2 2003 drama, horror, mystery, thriller
141 The Enforcer 6.7 1976 action, thriller
142 The Exorcist 8 1973 horror
143 The Final Countdown 6.6 1980 action, sci_fi
144 The Hound of the Baskervilles 7.5 1939 crime, drama, horror, mystery, thriller
145 The Hound of the Baskervilles 7 1959 mystery
146 The Hustler 8.1 1961 drama, sport
147 The King's Speech 8.1 2010 biography, drama, history
148 The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires 5.9 1974 action, horror
149 The Long, Hot Summer 7.2 1958 drama
150 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 9 1966 adventure, western
151 A Fistful of Dollars 8 1964 western
152 For a Few Dollars More 8.3 1965 western
153 North and South 7.8 1985 drama, history, romance, war
154 The Pacific 8.2 2010 action, adventure, drama, history, war
155 The Phantom of the Opera 7.1 2004 drama, musical, romance, thriller
156 Pride & Prejudice 7.7 2005 drama, romance
157 The Thing 8.1 1982 horror, mystery, sci_fi, thriller
158 The Thin Red Line 7.6 1998 drama, war
159 The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada 7.4 2005 adventure, crime, drama, mystery, western
160 The Verdict 7.7 1982 drama
161 They Were Expendable 7.2 1945 drama, war
162 To Kill a Mockingbird 8.4 1962 crime, drama, mystery
163 Trailer Park Boys 7.9 2001 comedy, drama
164 The Wire 9.3 2002 crime, drama, thriller
165 Unforgiven 8.3 1992 western
166 Valkyrie 7.1 2008 drama, history, thriller, war
167 Von Ryan's Express 7 1965 action, adventure, war
168 War and Remembrance 7.5 1988 drama, war
169 War of the Worlds 6.5 2005 adventure, sci_fi, thriller
170 White Christmas 7.3 1954 comedy, musical, romance
171 Holiday Inn 7.4 1942 comedy, drama, musical, romance
172 Without a Clue 6.8 1988 comedy, crime, mystery
173 The Winds of War 7.7 1983 drama, romance, war
174 The X-Files 8.7 1993 drama, mystery, sci_fi, thriller
175 X-Men 7.4 2000 action, adventure, sci_fi
176 X-Men: The Last Stand 6.8 2006 action, adventure, sci_fi, thriller
177 X2 7.5 2003 action, adventure, sci_fi, thriller
178 X-Men: First Class 7.8 2011 action, adventure, sci_fi
179 X-Men Origins: Wolverine 6.7 2009 action, adventure, sci_fi, thriller
180 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 8.5 1964 comedy, sci_fi, war
181 Doctor Zhivago 7.9 1965 drama, history, romance, war
182 The Wolfman 5.8 2010 drama, horror, thriller
183 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 7.3 2007 adventure, family, fantasy, mystery
184 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 8.1 2011 adventure, family, fantasy, mystery
185 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 7.6 2010 adventure, family, fantasy, mystery
186 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 7.4 2009 adventure, family, fantasy, mystery
187 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 7.7 2004 adventure, family, fantasy, mystery
188 Angels & Demons 6.6 2009 mystery, thriller
189 Transformers 7.1 2007 action, adventure, sci_fi, thriller
190 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 5.9 2009 action, adventure, sci_fi, thriller
191 Transformers: Dark of the Moon 6.3 2011 action, adventure, sci_fi
192 Once Upon a Time in the West 8.7 1968 adventure, western
193 From Here to Eternity 7.8 1953 drama, romance, war
194 The Sum of All Fears 6.3 2002 action, drama, thriller
195 The Hunt for Red October 7.6 1990 action, adventure, thriller
196 Patriot Games 6.8 1992 action, crime, drama, thriller
197 The Simpsons 8.9 1989 animation, comedy, family
198 Clear and Present Danger 6.8 1994 action, drama, thriller
199 Agatha Christie's Poirot 8.2 1989 drama, mystery, crime, thriller
200 Van Helsing 5.8 2004 action, adventure, fantasy, mystery, thriller
201 Hanna 6.8 2011 action, adventure, thriller
202 Jesse Stone: Stone Cold 7 2005 crime, drama, mystery, thriller
203 Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise 6.9 2006 crime, drama, mystery
204 Jesse Stone: Night Passage 7 2006 crime, drama, mystery
205 Jesse Stone: No Remorse 6.9 2010 crime, mystery
206 Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost 6.7 2011 crime, drama
207 The X-Files 8.7 1993 drama, mystery, sci_fi, thriller
208 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 7.8 2011 crime, drama, mystery, thriller
209 The Sopranos 9.1 1999 crime, drama
210 Fast Five 7.2 2011 action, crime, thriller
211 The Fast and the Furious 6.4 2001 action, crime, thriller
212 2 Fast 2 Furious 5.4 2003 action, crime, thriller
213 Fast & Furious 6.5 2009 action, crime, drama, thriller
214 Sherlock 9.2 2010 crime, drama, mystery
215 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows 7.4 2011 action, adventure, crime, mystery, thriller
216 The Big Trail 7.2 1930 adventure, western, romance
217 Red River 7.8 1948 action, adventure, romance, western
218 Legend of the Lost 5.9 1957 adventure, drama
219 The Barbarian and the Geisha 5.5 1958 adventure, drama, history, romance
220 The Horse Soldiers 7 1959 adventure, war, western
221 The Alamo 6.7 1960 adventure, drama, history, war, western
222 North to Alaska 6.8 1960 comedy, western
223 The Comancheros 6.7 1961 action, western, adventure, romance
224 The Longest Day 7.7 1962 action, drama, history, war
225 The Undefeated 6.4 1969 western
226 12 Angry Men 8.9 1957 drama
227 Pride and Prejudice 9 1995 romance, drama
228 The Prestige 8.4 2006 drama, mystery, thriller
229 Bend of the River 7.3 1952 action, adventure, western
230 The Far Country 7.2 1954 drama, romance, western
231 Night Passage 6.7 1957 western
232 The Rare Breed 6.2 1966 drama, romance, western
233 Singin' in the Rain 8.4 1952 comedy, musical, romance
234 Mark of the Vampire 6.3 1935 horror, mystery
235 The Haunted Palace 6.6 1963 horror
236 Dracula 7.6 1931 horror
237 Dracula's Daughter 6.3 1936 drama, fantasy, horror
238 Son of Dracula 6 1943 horror
239 House of Dracula 5.7 1945 fantasy, horror, sci_fi
240 The Bride of Frankenstein 7.9 1935 comedy, horror, sci_fi
241 Son of Frankenstein 7.1 1939 sci_fi, horror, drama
242 The Ghost of Frankenstein 6 1942 drama, horror, sci_fi
243 Dead of Night 7.7 1945 horror, thriller
244 12 Angry Men 8.9 1957 drama
245 Batman Begins 8.3 2005 action, adventure, crime, drama
246 Kelly's Heroes 7.5 1970 action, adventure, comedy, war
247 The Dirty Dozen 7.8 1967 action, drama, war
248 The Fog 6.7 1980 horror
249 Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein 7.3 1948 comedy, horror, sci_fi
250 The Last Man on Earth 6.8 1964 action, drama, horror, sci_fi, thriller
251 Game of Thrones 9.4 2011 adventure, drama, fantasy
252 Swingers 7.3 1996 comedy, drama
253 Skyfall 7.8 2012 action, adventure, thriller
254 Red vs Blue: Recollection Trilogy 8.7 2008 comedy
255 Red vs. Blue: Recreation 6.5 2009 animation, comedy, sci_fi, war
256 Red vs. Blue: Revelation 6.3 2010 animation, comedy, drama, sci_fi, war
257 Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction 6.4 2008 animation, comedy, sci_fi, war
258 Red vs. Blue: Season 10 6 2012 animation, action, comedy
259 Red vs. Blue Season 9 7 2011 animation, action, comedy, sci_fi, war
260 Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles 7.7 2003 animation, action, adventure, comedy, fantasy, sci_fi
261 The Best Years of Our Lives 8.2 1946 drama, romance, war
262 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 5.6 1993 action, adventure, comedy, family, sci_fi, thriller
263 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 8.1 2012 adventure, fantasy
264 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 7.7 1993 action, adventure, drama, sci_fi
265 Count Dracula 5.6 1970 horror
266 Battle of the Bulge 6.7 1965 war, action, drama
267 Starship Troopers 7.1 1997 action, adventure, sci_fi, thriller
268 The Last Stand 6.4 2013 action, crime, thriller
269 The Eiger Sanction 6.2 1975 action, adventure, romance, thriller
270 Coogan's Bluff 6.5 1968 action, crime, drama, thriller, western
271 Where Eagles Dare 7.6 1968 action, adventure, war
272 Lincoln 7.5 2012 biography, drama, history, war
273 Star Trek Into Darkness 7.9 2013 action, adventure, sci_fi
274 Iron Man 7.9 2008 action, adventure, sci_fi
275 Iron Man 3 7.4 2013 action, adventure, fantasy, sci_fi
276 Power Rangers Zeo 5.9 1996 action, comedy, family, sci_fi, thriller
277 Power Rangers Turbo 5.1 1997 action, family, adventure, fantasy, sci_fi, thriller
278 Power Rangers in Space 6.4 1998 action, adventure, comedy, sci_fi, thriller
279 Power Rangers Lost Galaxy 6.2 1999 action, adventure, fantasy, sci_fi, thriller
280 The Seventh Victim 6.9 1943 drama, horror, mystery, thriller
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Monday, September 30, 2013
Games before Playstation 4
Next month:
Ogre Battle Person of a Lordly Calibur (N64) sequel to a very hard SNES RPG
Rayman Legends (PS3)
Dragon's Crown (PS3)
Ogre Battle Person of a Lordly Calibur (N64) sequel to a very hard SNES RPG
Rayman Legends (PS3)
Dragon's Crown (PS3)
Legend of Zelda - Wind Waker HD (Wii U)
Bought some neo-conservative books
Got some neo-conservative books
I've made plenty of excuses for decade plus, but because I'm everything is backwards so I voted Romney and McCain. That means I am an neo-conservative. I own 4 books authored by Irvin Kristol and Leo Strauss.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Thanks Blizzard for single player in Diablo 3
Blizzard came out with a single player version of Diablo 3 that I don't have pay monthly. I wish they put single player in the PC version. I haven't played Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction since 2006 when I used Hero Editor to create high level barbarian. It was great fun. I bet in 2022, on the tenth anniversary, Blizzard will bring single player option on PC with a patch. Its great the PS3 version has 1.08 patch changes.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Fedora 19 review
In a nod to fans of classic desktop interfaces, the new Fedora includes a
MATE variant and classic mode for GNOME. Systemd now takes care of
containers and assigning network names. New drivers support 3D
acceleration in newer Radeon graphics cards.
Just one week later than originally planned, the Fedora Project has released the 19th version of its Linux distribution. This is the first version of Fedora to include the MATE Desktop, which is derived from GNOME 2 and is currently up to version 1.6. Fedora does not yet come standard with Cinnamon, but version 1.9.1 of the desktop can be installed from the package depot and then selected in the login manager for all variants of the distribution.
As usual, the installation DVD automatically sets up GNOME – now version 3.8 – which is also the interface used by the Desktop Edition, the distribution's primary variant. Just like the MATE variants, this is a Live Linux that can be used to both try out and install Fedora, as are the three Fedora variants that use the KDE 4.10, LXDE and Xfce 4.10 desktops.
Fedora 19
Standard desktop Classic Mode MATE spin
Fedora installations with KDE 4.10 can already use the monitor configuration program KScreen, recently updated to version 1.0. The classic mode introduced in GNOME 3.8 does not come standard with Fedora and can only be selected in the login manager after the "gnome-classic-session" package has been installed.
Fedora now includes several open source programs for 3D printing, which means it has everything needed to use 3D printers like RepRap. LibreOffice 4.1 is pre-installed as the standard office environment. Version 21 of Firefox and Thunderbird are included, with the current version 22 of both programs already available via Fedora's update system.
Init
System initialisation and some system management during operation is the responsibility of systemd 204, which now assigns predictable network names, meaning that network interfaces are given designations like "p4p1" (Ethernet) and "wlp0s26u1u1" (WLAN).
The systemd-nspawn tool belonging to systemd can now be used to start and stop containers; with just a few steps, explained on Fedora's page about the new feature, a container can be set up for running an unmodified Fedora distribution.
Systemd can also configure resource consumption for services at runtime. This feature, which is based on cgroups, could see some slight changes in future, as the systemd developers recently talked to the kernel developer responsible for cgroups and worked on some major modifications, which have already been added to the systemd development branch, but not to Fedora 19.
Fedora's systemd also includes support for the time and timer units that make cron features work, although software in Fedora that requires those cron features continues to use the cronie implementation out of the box. Saving system events in log files is still done with rsyslog rather than systemd's journal, and systemd can now link to Message Catalog entries in order to, for example, display more information on messages and error notifications.
Behind the scenes
Version 1.14.1 of X.org's X server handles the graphic interface; Wayland and Weston are included, but are not installed out of the box. The kernel is Linux 3.9, but the developers are already planning to send out an update to Linux 3.10, which was released one day before the new Fedora.
When it comes to Mesa 3D, Fedora is giving users a glimpse of the development branch. Anticipation of the next version of Mesa 3D means that Fedora includes hot-off-the-presses versions of open source 3D drivers, including the OpenGL driver radeonsi, which most distributions do not yet have. Fedora, however, can use that driver to take advantage of 3D support in Radeon's Southern Islands graphics cores, which are used in Radeon HD graphics cards 7750 to 7950 and others. Fedora also includes the userland driver for using Radeon's video accelerator UVD (Unified Video Decoder); although it does not yet work with the kernel that comes with Fedora 19, there should be no conflicts with version 3.10 of the Linux kernel.
As usual, proprietary graphics drivers are missing from the distribution. NVIDIA's can be installed from the RPM Fusion add-on repository, where packages designed for Fedora with AMD's – beta – drivers can also be found.
In a nod to fans of classic desktop interfaces, the new Fedora includes a MATE variant and classic mode for GNOME. Systemd now takes care of containers and assigning network names. New drivers support 3D acceleration in newer Radeon graphics cards.
Just one week later than originally planned, the Fedora Project has released the 19th version of its Linux distribution. This is the first version of Fedora to include the MATE Desktop, which is derived from GNOME 2 and is currently up to version 1.6. Fedora does not yet come standard with Cinnamon, but version 1.9.1 of the desktop can be installed from the package depot and then selected in the login manager for all variants of the distribution.
As usual, the installation DVD automatically sets up GNOME – now version 3.8 – which is also the interface used by the Desktop Edition, the distribution's primary variant. Just like the MATE variants, this is a Live Linux that can be used to both try out and install Fedora, as are the three Fedora variants that use the KDE 4.10, LXDE and Xfce 4.10 desktops.
Fedora 19
Standard desktop Classic Mode MATE spin
Slideshow, 14 images
Fedora installations with KDE 4.10 can already use the monitor configuration program KScreen, recently updated to version 1.0. The classic mode introduced in GNOME 3.8 does not come standard with Fedora and can only be selected in the login manager after the "gnome-classic-session" package has been installed.
Fedora now includes several open source programs for 3D printing, which means it has everything needed to use 3D printers like RepRap. LibreOffice 4.1 is pre-installed as the standard office environment. Version 21 of Firefox and Thunderbird are included, with the current version 22 of both programs already available via Fedora's update system.
Init
System initialisation and some system management during operation is the responsibility of systemd 204, which now assigns predictable network names, meaning that network interfaces are given designations like "p4p1" (Ethernet) and "wlp0s26u1u1" (WLAN).
The systemd-nspawn tool belonging to systemd can now be used to start and stop containers; with just a few steps, explained on Fedora's page about the new feature, a container can be set up for running an unmodified Fedora distribution.
Systemd can also configure resource consumption for services at runtime. This feature, which is based on cgroups, could see some slight changes in future, as the systemd developers recently talked to the kernel developer responsible for cgroups and worked on some major modifications, which have already been added to the systemd development branch, but not to Fedora 19.
Fedora's systemd also includes support for the time and timer units that make cron features work, although software in Fedora that requires those cron features continues to use the cronie implementation out of the box. Saving system events in log files is still done with rsyslog rather than systemd's journal, and systemd can now link to Message Catalog entries in order to, for example, display more information on messages and error notifications.
Behind the scenes
Version 1.14.1 of X.org's X server handles the graphic interface; Wayland and Weston are included, but are not installed out of the box. The kernel is Linux 3.9, but the developers are already planning to send out an update to Linux 3.10, which was released one day before the new Fedora.
When it comes to Mesa 3D, Fedora is giving users a glimpse of the development branch. Anticipation of the next version of Mesa 3D means that Fedora includes hot-off-the-presses versions of open source 3D drivers, including the OpenGL driver radeonsi, which most distributions do not yet have. Fedora, however, can use that driver to take advantage of 3D support in Radeon's Southern Islands graphics cores, which are used in Radeon HD graphics cards 7750 to 7950 and others. Fedora also includes the userland driver for using Radeon's video accelerator UVD (Unified Video Decoder); although it does not yet work with the kernel that comes with Fedora 19, there should be no conflicts with version 3.10 of the Linux kernel.
As usual, proprietary graphics drivers are missing from the distribution. NVIDIA's can be installed from the RPM Fusion add-on repository, where packages designed for Fedora with AMD's – beta – drivers can also be found.
Outlook
Fedora 19 is available for 32- and 64-bit x86 systems, as well as 32-bit ARM SoCs, which means that Fedora's ARM port has been released at the same time as the version for x86 CPUs for the first time ever. Fedora 19 variants for 64-bit power processors (PPC) and s390x are being worked on at the moment and should be released soon. Fedora categorises the three variants for non-x86 systems as secondary architectures so that they don't slow down work on the two x86 versions, but the distribution's ARM developers are working on achieving the same status for their port as the x86 versions. They are also preparing to bring support to the 64-bit ARM execution state AArch64, for which they hope to publish a specifically designed variant of Fedora 20.
Now that Fedora 19 is complete, work on version 20 has already started, although it does not yet have a name or an expected release date. The initial schedule currently suggests a release in mid-November, which would be roughly in keeping with the Fedora Project's typical cycle.
Conclusion
The new Fedora does not have any major changes, much less any revolutionary ones, but the small and medium-sized changes certainly add up, including better support for new Radeon graphics cores, a spate of new systemd features and the move to MariaDB. An updated and very comprehensive collection of software makes Fedora one of the most cutting-edge distributions at the moment.
Fedora 19
Standard desktop Classic Mode MATE spin
Slideshow, 14 images
Download
The Fedora Project maintains several download pages for the distribution. The main download page limits itself to the standard edition – the desktop spin for 64-bit x86 systems (x86-64/x64), which comes with the GNOME desktop and can be installed onto a CD or USB drive. The 32-bit x86 (x86/x86-32) system edition is available from a second download page, which also includes links for downloading the most popular spins, including spins with KDE, Xfce or LXDE as the default desktop.
A further download page lists DVD and USB drive images for creating installation media. These do not allow users to try them before installing, but do allow the selection of software users want to install. This installation takes longer to set up the system. Network installation requires the use of these images. The 1MB gXPE image even allows the installation environment itself to be booted from a network. Only these images allow the semi-automated installation of the distribution with Kickstart files.
Images targeted for use in the cloud are listed on the project wiki. Fedora also has further spins, featuring collections of software aimed at specific target groups, available from the spins subdomain. These include the previously standalone Sugar on a Stick (SoaS), the DVD-oriented Games spin, and the Security Lab spin, containing primarily system rescue, forensic system analysis and security auditing software. These spins allow use as a live environment, similar to the GNOME, KDE SC and Xfce variants.
Fedora's ISO files are hybrid images that can be written to USB memory sticks using the "dd" command-line tool, allowing the user to boot the distribution from the stick. Alternatively, users can transfer the ISO images to USB devices with the liveusb-creator tool, which is available for Linux and Windows. This also allows the use of free space on the device to create an overlay file that the spin mounts for persistent data storage.
The different variants of Fedora are created with packages from the distribution's repository, which is used as a central pool of installable packages for all of them. The repository for the x86-64 version includes over 35,000 binary packages that have been created from around 13,000 source packages.
By using fedup, which was introduced in Fedora 18, users can upgrade to the latest release ; an update through the installation DVD is not possible any more. Similar to the "apt-get update" command on Debian system, yum can be used to upgrade a Fedora installation on the go. However this is not officially supported and needs advanced knowledge.
Focused on open source software
With the exception of a few firmware files, Fedora only contains software available under open source licences recognised by the Fedora Project. Licences which forbid commercial use of the software or redistribution to others do not make it onto this list. The Fedora project also excludes software which uses technologies known to be patented. This approach is a conscious choice, made with the aim of creating an open source operating system which guarantees that users wanting to use or distribute it will not be subject to copyright or patent claims.
It does mean that Fedora is missing some day-to-day features important to many Linux users. These include Adobe Flash Player and proprietary AMD and NVIDIA graphics drivers. It also lacks software for playing many common audio and video formats, including support for playing MP3s, intellectual property rights relating to which have been have repeatedly asserted by the patent holders.
On a laptop or desktop, therefore, Fedora is only really ready for action once package repositories for installing much of the software excluded by the Fedora Project have been activated. The best-known and most used Fedora repositories are the "free" and "nonfree" repositories from RPM Fusion, which can be activated post-installation in just a few simple steps. If a Gstreamer-based application needs a codec not included with Fedora, PackageKit will ask you to confirm and then, if available, install it automatically from an RPM Fusion repository. A how-to explaining how to install NVIDIA's proprietary graphics drivers is also available.
RPM Fusion provides access to many popular applications and drivers ignored by Fedora, but by no means all. It does not, for example include Adobe Reader or the Adobe Flash plugin, as this is forbidden under licensing conditions for the two programs. Adobe does, however, maintain its own package repository which can be used from Fedora. Google also maintains Fedora-compatible repositories for its software.
Just one week later than originally planned, the Fedora Project has released the 19th version of its Linux distribution. This is the first version of Fedora to include the MATE Desktop, which is derived from GNOME 2 and is currently up to version 1.6. Fedora does not yet come standard with Cinnamon, but version 1.9.1 of the desktop can be installed from the package depot and then selected in the login manager for all variants of the distribution.
As usual, the installation DVD automatically sets up GNOME – now version 3.8 – which is also the interface used by the Desktop Edition, the distribution's primary variant. Just like the MATE variants, this is a Live Linux that can be used to both try out and install Fedora, as are the three Fedora variants that use the KDE 4.10, LXDE and Xfce 4.10 desktops.
Fedora 19
Standard desktop Classic Mode MATE spin
Fedora installations with KDE 4.10 can already use the monitor configuration program KScreen, recently updated to version 1.0. The classic mode introduced in GNOME 3.8 does not come standard with Fedora and can only be selected in the login manager after the "gnome-classic-session" package has been installed.
Fedora now includes several open source programs for 3D printing, which means it has everything needed to use 3D printers like RepRap. LibreOffice 4.1 is pre-installed as the standard office environment. Version 21 of Firefox and Thunderbird are included, with the current version 22 of both programs already available via Fedora's update system.
Init
System initialisation and some system management during operation is the responsibility of systemd 204, which now assigns predictable network names, meaning that network interfaces are given designations like "p4p1" (Ethernet) and "wlp0s26u1u1" (WLAN).
The systemd-nspawn tool belonging to systemd can now be used to start and stop containers; with just a few steps, explained on Fedora's page about the new feature, a container can be set up for running an unmodified Fedora distribution.
Systemd can also configure resource consumption for services at runtime. This feature, which is based on cgroups, could see some slight changes in future, as the systemd developers recently talked to the kernel developer responsible for cgroups and worked on some major modifications, which have already been added to the systemd development branch, but not to Fedora 19.
Fedora's systemd also includes support for the time and timer units that make cron features work, although software in Fedora that requires those cron features continues to use the cronie implementation out of the box. Saving system events in log files is still done with rsyslog rather than systemd's journal, and systemd can now link to Message Catalog entries in order to, for example, display more information on messages and error notifications.
Behind the scenes
Version 1.14.1 of X.org's X server handles the graphic interface; Wayland and Weston are included, but are not installed out of the box. The kernel is Linux 3.9, but the developers are already planning to send out an update to Linux 3.10, which was released one day before the new Fedora.
When it comes to Mesa 3D, Fedora is giving users a glimpse of the development branch. Anticipation of the next version of Mesa 3D means that Fedora includes hot-off-the-presses versions of open source 3D drivers, including the OpenGL driver radeonsi, which most distributions do not yet have. Fedora, however, can use that driver to take advantage of 3D support in Radeon's Southern Islands graphics cores, which are used in Radeon HD graphics cards 7750 to 7950 and others. Fedora also includes the userland driver for using Radeon's video accelerator UVD (Unified Video Decoder); although it does not yet work with the kernel that comes with Fedora 19, there should be no conflicts with version 3.10 of the Linux kernel.
As usual, proprietary graphics drivers are missing from the distribution. NVIDIA's can be installed from the RPM Fusion add-on repository, where packages designed for Fedora with AMD's – beta – drivers can also be found.
In a nod to fans of classic desktop interfaces, the new Fedora includes a MATE variant and classic mode for GNOME. Systemd now takes care of containers and assigning network names. New drivers support 3D acceleration in newer Radeon graphics cards.
Just one week later than originally planned, the Fedora Project has released the 19th version of its Linux distribution. This is the first version of Fedora to include the MATE Desktop, which is derived from GNOME 2 and is currently up to version 1.6. Fedora does not yet come standard with Cinnamon, but version 1.9.1 of the desktop can be installed from the package depot and then selected in the login manager for all variants of the distribution.
As usual, the installation DVD automatically sets up GNOME – now version 3.8 – which is also the interface used by the Desktop Edition, the distribution's primary variant. Just like the MATE variants, this is a Live Linux that can be used to both try out and install Fedora, as are the three Fedora variants that use the KDE 4.10, LXDE and Xfce 4.10 desktops.
Fedora 19
Standard desktop Classic Mode MATE spinSlideshow, 14 images
Fedora installations with KDE 4.10 can already use the monitor configuration program KScreen, recently updated to version 1.0. The classic mode introduced in GNOME 3.8 does not come standard with Fedora and can only be selected in the login manager after the "gnome-classic-session" package has been installed.
Fedora now includes several open source programs for 3D printing, which means it has everything needed to use 3D printers like RepRap. LibreOffice 4.1 is pre-installed as the standard office environment. Version 21 of Firefox and Thunderbird are included, with the current version 22 of both programs already available via Fedora's update system.
Init
System initialisation and some system management during operation is the responsibility of systemd 204, which now assigns predictable network names, meaning that network interfaces are given designations like "p4p1" (Ethernet) and "wlp0s26u1u1" (WLAN).
The systemd-nspawn tool belonging to systemd can now be used to start and stop containers; with just a few steps, explained on Fedora's page about the new feature, a container can be set up for running an unmodified Fedora distribution.
Systemd can also configure resource consumption for services at runtime. This feature, which is based on cgroups, could see some slight changes in future, as the systemd developers recently talked to the kernel developer responsible for cgroups and worked on some major modifications, which have already been added to the systemd development branch, but not to Fedora 19.
Fedora's systemd also includes support for the time and timer units that make cron features work, although software in Fedora that requires those cron features continues to use the cronie implementation out of the box. Saving system events in log files is still done with rsyslog rather than systemd's journal, and systemd can now link to Message Catalog entries in order to, for example, display more information on messages and error notifications.
Behind the scenes
Version 1.14.1 of X.org's X server handles the graphic interface; Wayland and Weston are included, but are not installed out of the box. The kernel is Linux 3.9, but the developers are already planning to send out an update to Linux 3.10, which was released one day before the new Fedora.
When it comes to Mesa 3D, Fedora is giving users a glimpse of the development branch. Anticipation of the next version of Mesa 3D means that Fedora includes hot-off-the-presses versions of open source 3D drivers, including the OpenGL driver radeonsi, which most distributions do not yet have. Fedora, however, can use that driver to take advantage of 3D support in Radeon's Southern Islands graphics cores, which are used in Radeon HD graphics cards 7750 to 7950 and others. Fedora also includes the userland driver for using Radeon's video accelerator UVD (Unified Video Decoder); although it does not yet work with the kernel that comes with Fedora 19, there should be no conflicts with version 3.10 of the Linux kernel.
As usual, proprietary graphics drivers are missing from the distribution. NVIDIA's can be installed from the RPM Fusion add-on repository, where packages designed for Fedora with AMD's – beta – drivers can also be found.
Outlook
Fedora 19 is available for 32- and 64-bit x86 systems, as well as 32-bit ARM SoCs, which means that Fedora's ARM port has been released at the same time as the version for x86 CPUs for the first time ever. Fedora 19 variants for 64-bit power processors (PPC) and s390x are being worked on at the moment and should be released soon. Fedora categorises the three variants for non-x86 systems as secondary architectures so that they don't slow down work on the two x86 versions, but the distribution's ARM developers are working on achieving the same status for their port as the x86 versions. They are also preparing to bring support to the 64-bit ARM execution state AArch64, for which they hope to publish a specifically designed variant of Fedora 20.
Now that Fedora 19 is complete, work on version 20 has already started, although it does not yet have a name or an expected release date. The initial schedule currently suggests a release in mid-November, which would be roughly in keeping with the Fedora Project's typical cycle.
Conclusion
The new Fedora does not have any major changes, much less any revolutionary ones, but the small and medium-sized changes certainly add up, including better support for new Radeon graphics cores, a spate of new systemd features and the move to MariaDB. An updated and very comprehensive collection of software makes Fedora one of the most cutting-edge distributions at the moment.
Fedora 19
Standard desktop Classic Mode MATE spin
Slideshow, 14 images
Download
The Fedora Project maintains several download pages for the distribution. The main download page limits itself to the standard edition – the desktop spin for 64-bit x86 systems (x86-64/x64), which comes with the GNOME desktop and can be installed onto a CD or USB drive. The 32-bit x86 (x86/x86-32) system edition is available from a second download page, which also includes links for downloading the most popular spins, including spins with KDE, Xfce or LXDE as the default desktop.
A further download page lists DVD and USB drive images for creating installation media. These do not allow users to try them before installing, but do allow the selection of software users want to install. This installation takes longer to set up the system. Network installation requires the use of these images. The 1MB gXPE image even allows the installation environment itself to be booted from a network. Only these images allow the semi-automated installation of the distribution with Kickstart files.
Images targeted for use in the cloud are listed on the project wiki. Fedora also has further spins, featuring collections of software aimed at specific target groups, available from the spins subdomain. These include the previously standalone Sugar on a Stick (SoaS), the DVD-oriented Games spin, and the Security Lab spin, containing primarily system rescue, forensic system analysis and security auditing software. These spins allow use as a live environment, similar to the GNOME, KDE SC and Xfce variants.
Fedora's ISO files are hybrid images that can be written to USB memory sticks using the "dd" command-line tool, allowing the user to boot the distribution from the stick. Alternatively, users can transfer the ISO images to USB devices with the liveusb-creator tool, which is available for Linux and Windows. This also allows the use of free space on the device to create an overlay file that the spin mounts for persistent data storage.
The different variants of Fedora are created with packages from the distribution's repository, which is used as a central pool of installable packages for all of them. The repository for the x86-64 version includes over 35,000 binary packages that have been created from around 13,000 source packages.
By using fedup, which was introduced in Fedora 18, users can upgrade to the latest release ; an update through the installation DVD is not possible any more. Similar to the "apt-get update" command on Debian system, yum can be used to upgrade a Fedora installation on the go. However this is not officially supported and needs advanced knowledge.
Focused on open source software
With the exception of a few firmware files, Fedora only contains software available under open source licences recognised by the Fedora Project. Licences which forbid commercial use of the software or redistribution to others do not make it onto this list. The Fedora project also excludes software which uses technologies known to be patented. This approach is a conscious choice, made with the aim of creating an open source operating system which guarantees that users wanting to use or distribute it will not be subject to copyright or patent claims.
It does mean that Fedora is missing some day-to-day features important to many Linux users. These include Adobe Flash Player and proprietary AMD and NVIDIA graphics drivers. It also lacks software for playing many common audio and video formats, including support for playing MP3s, intellectual property rights relating to which have been have repeatedly asserted by the patent holders.
On a laptop or desktop, therefore, Fedora is only really ready for action once package repositories for installing much of the software excluded by the Fedora Project have been activated. The best-known and most used Fedora repositories are the "free" and "nonfree" repositories from RPM Fusion, which can be activated post-installation in just a few simple steps. If a Gstreamer-based application needs a codec not included with Fedora, PackageKit will ask you to confirm and then, if available, install it automatically from an RPM Fusion repository. A how-to explaining how to install NVIDIA's proprietary graphics drivers is also available.
RPM Fusion provides access to many popular applications and drivers ignored by Fedora, but by no means all. It does not, for example include Adobe Reader or the Adobe Flash plugin, as this is forbidden under licensing conditions for the two programs. Adobe does, however, maintain its own package repository which can be used from Fedora. Google also maintains Fedora-compatible repositories for its software.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Linux Mint 15 review
Linux Mint 14 was one of our favorite desktop distros of the last year. While there were some initial hiccups that required a 14.1 release, it was generally a much better release than the then current Ubuntu 12.10, which had been marred by the controversy over the Amazon searches in the dash. Cinnamon seemed like a much more welcome alternative when people’s privacy was at stake.
Cinnamon isn’t the only option though, with MATE flanking Cinnamon as the alternate image on Mint’s download page. With both 32 and 64-bit versions as standard for each, there isn’t one overall DVD ISO with both on for you to try, however the images themselves are not much bigger than a CD, clocking in at around 900 MB. Installation is quick and painless if you want it to be, and more advanced if you have special needs for your system. On our test setups it took us only slightly more than ten minutes to go from booting into the live disc to a full installed Linux distro. First impressions of the distribution are great – the MDM Display Manager finally comes with user selection by default, rather than having to choose a GTK greeter after the fact. This default greeter is part of the new HTML 5 theming, which allows for animated themes using the web standard. There are already a few available to try out, such as a steam punky night time theme, or a futuristic space bound theme. There are more online created by users and web designers alike that can feel right at home with the familiar code.
The impressions continue well. A new digital clock resides on the desktop as one of the new desklets, similar to Android widgets. These interactive desktop spots are easily manipulated, so you can move, remove or add more easily depending on your preference. However, the selection is fairly small at the moment, with the most interesting desklet being an XKCD viewer. The default app selection is pretty good, which usually means it has Firefox, an IM client, and access to LibreOffice. It does actually come with GIMP and VLC by default, which is not all that common. Heading to the Mint Software Manager to get some more applications is always a great experience, as unlike the Software Centre in Ubuntu, you never feel like you’re being babied with recommendations or “Technical Items” turned off. The interface is straightforward, and just the right balance of information and user-friendliness. Using Mint is very much a joy, and is aided by many of the new features in Mint 15. Nemo’s overhaul has made changing your folder view on the fly very easy, allowing you to hide the sidebar at a touch of a button as well. The entire Cinnamon desktop is incredibly slick, much faster than the GNOME Shell, and a lot more customizable as well. All the customization options for both the Cinnamon environment and the distro itself have been merged under one settings application – before the Mint Menu would have the Cinnamon Settings on it, and could get a touch confusing if you were quickly looking for the Settings application with the same icon. MATE as well has had some love, and while there isn’t a huge difference visually for day-to-day users, a lot of minor speed improvements and optimizations have been performed on it. Caja, the file manager, has had a small aesthetic update, and can now use the Connect Server option from Nautilus. There’s also new support for media keys as well, something a lot of more modern desktops have been able to use for a while now. It also seems to run with fairly low power requirements. Testing it on a laptop, we found it gave us up to 30% extra battery life than Ubuntu running Unity would doing similar tasks. Frankly, we work faster on Linux Mint as well thanks to the variety of simple keyboard shortcuts for all kinds of desktop exposing and app switching operations, as well as the fairly smart hot corner that won’t just activate if the mouse looks like it’s moving there. Once again we find ourselves adoring the package that Clement and his team have put out. We haven’t found a single problem with the distro, and the only thing we were disappointed at was the lack of desklets at the time of writing. With the new API for applets that links in to desklets, it’s just a matter of time before the community begins to release more. Until then though, we’re more than satisfied with the smooth, user-friendly experience that Linux Mint 15 and Cinnamon 1.8 provides to be our main distro for at least another six months.
The impressions continue well. A new digital clock resides on the desktop as one of the new desklets, similar to Android widgets. These interactive desktop spots are easily manipulated, so you can move, remove or add more easily depending on your preference. However, the selection is fairly small at the moment, with the most interesting desklet being an XKCD viewer. The default app selection is pretty good, which usually means it has Firefox, an IM client, and access to LibreOffice. It does actually come with GIMP and VLC by default, which is not all that common. Heading to the Mint Software Manager to get some more applications is always a great experience, as unlike the Software Centre in Ubuntu, you never feel like you’re being babied with recommendations or “Technical Items” turned off. The interface is straightforward, and just the right balance of information and user-friendliness. Using Mint is very much a joy, and is aided by many of the new features in Mint 15. Nemo’s overhaul has made changing your folder view on the fly very easy, allowing you to hide the sidebar at a touch of a button as well. The entire Cinnamon desktop is incredibly slick, much faster than the GNOME Shell, and a lot more customizable as well. All the customization options for both the Cinnamon environment and the distro itself have been merged under one settings application – before the Mint Menu would have the Cinnamon Settings on it, and could get a touch confusing if you were quickly looking for the Settings application with the same icon. MATE as well has had some love, and while there isn’t a huge difference visually for day-to-day users, a lot of minor speed improvements and optimizations have been performed on it. Caja, the file manager, has had a small aesthetic update, and can now use the Connect Server option from Nautilus. There’s also new support for media keys as well, something a lot of more modern desktops have been able to use for a while now. It also seems to run with fairly low power requirements. Testing it on a laptop, we found it gave us up to 30% extra battery life than Ubuntu running Unity would doing similar tasks. Frankly, we work faster on Linux Mint as well thanks to the variety of simple keyboard shortcuts for all kinds of desktop exposing and app switching operations, as well as the fairly smart hot corner that won’t just activate if the mouse looks like it’s moving there. Once again we find ourselves adoring the package that Clement and his team have put out. We haven’t found a single problem with the distro, and the only thing we were disappointed at was the lack of desklets at the time of writing. With the new API for applets that links in to desklets, it’s just a matter of time before the community begins to release more. Until then though, we’re more than satisfied with the smooth, user-friendly experience that Linux Mint 15 and Cinnamon 1.8 provides to be our main distro for at least another six months.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
My Anticipated PS4 titles
My anticipated PS4 titles. The best console coming out in November.
Final Fantasy XV
Lords of the Fallen
Diablo 3 - I own it for PC, and would love single player and free MMORPG play.
Drive Club
PS4 is less expensive ($400) than xbox one ($500).It’s been a long time since I’ve cared about console gaming. Aside from a few stand out exceptions the last generation of consoles has been disappointing enough that I never actually bought any of the consoles; I was given my Wii for my birthday and my Xbox 360 was a red ringed hunk of plastic when I got it, albeit a red ringed hunk that was still under warranty. Suffice to say I wasn’t impressed, and everything I’ve heard thus far about the “Next Generation” has me convinced that my decision to join the PC Gaming Master Race was the smartest thing I’ve done since deciding to forgive Blizzard for World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm expansion. All the same though it’s impossible to deny the console share of the video game market, and with Nintendo’s Wii U having been released late last year the generation of the Console War has begun. Sony and Microsoft have both announced their next generation console, and with Nintendo marching to the beat of it’s own drum as always Microsoft and Sony only really have each other to contend with. From initial reports though it’s already shaping up to be so one-sided a fight in Sony’s favor it’s almost embarrassing to write this as if there will be an even fight. Still, here’s the blow-by-blow based one what we know so far.
1. Technical Specifications
The biggest difference between the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One thus far is the power each system boasts. The Xbox One boasts 8GB of DDR3 RAM powered by a custom 8-core AMD CPU (Microsoft is being vague on the processor details) backed up with a 500GB hard drive. On Sony’s side the Playstation 4 offers up an 8-core x86-64 AMD “Jaguar” CPU and 8GB of GDDR5 RAM and an unknown amount of hard drive space. Both pack a modest amount of RAM compared to a decent gaming PC, but it’s 16 times the amount of RAM the previous generation of consoles offered. Both will also feature Blu-Ray support as well as online services and 4k support. The Playstation 4 also has Bluetooth compatibility while the Xbox One doesn’t.
Overall the graphical fight between the Playstation 4 and Xbox One will remain neck and neck as it always has, though Sony’s decision to use GDDR5 as opposed to the slower and more common DDR3 could prove decisive in the long run, as well as the Xbox One using 3GBs of that RAM on it’s Operating System and Apps whereas the Playstation 4 will only use 1GB. Also the 500GB hard drive on the Xbox One can’t be replaced and won’t be user serviceable (though both consoles will feature external storage support).
2. Digital Rights Management/Used Games
This is an especially difficult paragraph to write given how even before the Xbox One was announced the rumors about the One’s always online requirement and prejudice towards used games have made for some very potent gamer rage. I even wrote an article about it. All Sony has had to do is sit back and let Microsoft do all the talking and then say the exact opposite to win this category. While the Xbox One won’t need to be online all the time, it will have to connect to the internet at least once in a 24-hour period (Or so conflicting Microsoft reports have said).
To throw in another dish of bad decisions, Microsoft has said that all games will be hard installed to the Xbox One’s hard drive and linked to a unique Xbox Live account. This would function similar to the Steam gaming client, except that logging into your Xbox Live account on a console aside from your own won’t give you access to the games linked to that account. And should you buy a pre-owned game better get your wallet ready to pay double: Microsoft plans to charge a fee equal to the game’s original price for adding a used game to your account.
3. Console Goals
]
This is the category where the differences between the consoles really stand out. For months since the announcement of the Playstation 4 Sony has played itself up as the Anti-Microsoft and let it be known that while it will have other features, the Playstation 4 will be mostly about gaming. This contrasts Microsoft’s goals for the Xbox One, which as the name implies they want to act as an all-in-one media box. In essence, it comes off that Microsoft’s goal with the Xbox One is to compete with Smart TVs and computers hooked up to TVs rather than the Playstation 4 or even the Wii U. In addition to this, Microsoft has stated that they intend to continue making games for the Xbox 360 even after the One’s release, which isn’t a very powerful statement of confidence in the new console.
Ever since the One’s announcement Microsoft has done nothing but backpedaling and running damage control. If all else fails, the Xbox One will serve as a terrible warning to future consoles.
Final Fantasy XV
Lords of the Fallen
Diablo 3 - I own it for PC, and would love single player and free MMORPG play.
Drive Club
PS4 is less expensive ($400) than xbox one ($500).It’s been a long time since I’ve cared about console gaming. Aside from a few stand out exceptions the last generation of consoles has been disappointing enough that I never actually bought any of the consoles; I was given my Wii for my birthday and my Xbox 360 was a red ringed hunk of plastic when I got it, albeit a red ringed hunk that was still under warranty. Suffice to say I wasn’t impressed, and everything I’ve heard thus far about the “Next Generation” has me convinced that my decision to join the PC Gaming Master Race was the smartest thing I’ve done since deciding to forgive Blizzard for World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm expansion. All the same though it’s impossible to deny the console share of the video game market, and with Nintendo’s Wii U having been released late last year the generation of the Console War has begun. Sony and Microsoft have both announced their next generation console, and with Nintendo marching to the beat of it’s own drum as always Microsoft and Sony only really have each other to contend with. From initial reports though it’s already shaping up to be so one-sided a fight in Sony’s favor it’s almost embarrassing to write this as if there will be an even fight. Still, here’s the blow-by-blow based one what we know so far.
1. Technical Specifications
The biggest difference between the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One thus far is the power each system boasts. The Xbox One boasts 8GB of DDR3 RAM powered by a custom 8-core AMD CPU (Microsoft is being vague on the processor details) backed up with a 500GB hard drive. On Sony’s side the Playstation 4 offers up an 8-core x86-64 AMD “Jaguar” CPU and 8GB of GDDR5 RAM and an unknown amount of hard drive space. Both pack a modest amount of RAM compared to a decent gaming PC, but it’s 16 times the amount of RAM the previous generation of consoles offered. Both will also feature Blu-Ray support as well as online services and 4k support. The Playstation 4 also has Bluetooth compatibility while the Xbox One doesn’t.
Overall the graphical fight between the Playstation 4 and Xbox One will remain neck and neck as it always has, though Sony’s decision to use GDDR5 as opposed to the slower and more common DDR3 could prove decisive in the long run, as well as the Xbox One using 3GBs of that RAM on it’s Operating System and Apps whereas the Playstation 4 will only use 1GB. Also the 500GB hard drive on the Xbox One can’t be replaced and won’t be user serviceable (though both consoles will feature external storage support).
2. Digital Rights Management/Used Games
This is an especially difficult paragraph to write given how even before the Xbox One was announced the rumors about the One’s always online requirement and prejudice towards used games have made for some very potent gamer rage. I even wrote an article about it. All Sony has had to do is sit back and let Microsoft do all the talking and then say the exact opposite to win this category. While the Xbox One won’t need to be online all the time, it will have to connect to the internet at least once in a 24-hour period (Or so conflicting Microsoft reports have said).
To throw in another dish of bad decisions, Microsoft has said that all games will be hard installed to the Xbox One’s hard drive and linked to a unique Xbox Live account. This would function similar to the Steam gaming client, except that logging into your Xbox Live account on a console aside from your own won’t give you access to the games linked to that account. And should you buy a pre-owned game better get your wallet ready to pay double: Microsoft plans to charge a fee equal to the game’s original price for adding a used game to your account.
3. Console Goals
]
This is the category where the differences between the consoles really stand out. For months since the announcement of the Playstation 4 Sony has played itself up as the Anti-Microsoft and let it be known that while it will have other features, the Playstation 4 will be mostly about gaming. This contrasts Microsoft’s goals for the Xbox One, which as the name implies they want to act as an all-in-one media box. In essence, it comes off that Microsoft’s goal with the Xbox One is to compete with Smart TVs and computers hooked up to TVs rather than the Playstation 4 or even the Wii U. In addition to this, Microsoft has stated that they intend to continue making games for the Xbox 360 even after the One’s release, which isn’t a very powerful statement of confidence in the new console.
Ever since the One’s announcement Microsoft has done nothing but backpedaling and running damage control. If all else fails, the Xbox One will serve as a terrible warning to future consoles.
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