Wednesday, March 28, 2001

Mega-Minimums for Windows XP -- 2:59 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

CNet News is reporting that the minimum system requirements for Windows XP will be a huge leap up from WindowsME. Here's a snip:

Microsoft's Web site recommends a minimum 300MHz Pentium II processor and 128MB of RAM to run the Windows XP beta, up from a 133MHz processor and 64MB of memory for Windows 2000. Although many PCs come with 128MB now, machines sold a year ago, especially budget PCs, typically came with much less memory.

A 300 Mhz processor and 128M RAM just to run the freaking OS? Why is it that the only things that seem to be making use of the latest and greatest processors are games and Microsoft's OSes?

The Master comments: And Excel, and Word, and Outlook, and any other form of Windows BloatWare^TM you'd care to mention . . .

J.t.Qbe comments: If you don't want to buy a new system just because Microsoft Tells You To, just remember that Linux and BSD have much more reasonable hardware requirements.

A.t. brings up a good question though. It's pretty simple--with both Windows and games, you need the extra hardware to push the pixels around. Most other user software simply doesn't need the horsepower. However, PC sales have been in a slump since December (because most users simply don't need the latest and fastest machine) and this is, I suspect, the first of many attempts to get sales going again. If you want to run Micro$oft's latest and greatest, you're going to need a superpowered machine, so you'd better go buy one! Go! Spend! Be a good consumer! Make M$ happy! That's your reason for existence! Ok, I'm done now--back to my FreeBSD install.

Pondering the Imponderable -- 10:38 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I played through the Serious Sam Public Test 2 yesterday just to see what it is like. I couldn't decide if the wave after wave of enemies was frenetic or simply annoying. Having said that, seeing a harpy blow up in a cloud of feathers like a dove hit with a Randy Johnson fastball is a unique experience. The werebull is also very cool. The graphics are gorgeous. For $15, you certainly can't beat it.

A lot of people compare it to Doom with its constant barrage of mindless enemies. When I played Doom, there were parts that actually scared me a bit. Nothing in Serious Sam is particularly terrifying. It's deliberately campy in places. The saving grace might very well be co-op play which was my favorite part of Doom.

The Master comments: I never did play co-op DooM, but I DID play quite a bit of co-op in Quake 1. That was a blast. It's amazing how tactics come into play in a co-op game like that. Great stuff-I hope to see co-op come back in the role it used to have in DooM and Quake 1.

Tuesday, March 27, 2001

Tribes 2 Linux Dedicated Server -- 10:07 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Loki has released the Linux dedicated server for Tribes 2 (6.4M). It requires a Tribes 2 for Windows CD. You can read all about it in the README. As a matter of fact you'll have to, since I can't find any reference to it on Loki's site. Thanks Blue.

Two New Hun-Speaks! -- 9:30 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Ah yes, the old creative juices are a-flowin'! My first commentary is another one on the demise of the gaming networks. In this installment, I ask the musical question Will We Pay to Play? Will gamers shell out cash to keep their favorite sites afloat? Should they have to?

My second commentary is more light-hearted. It is my wishlist for Shogo 2. Granted, Shogo 2 has only been alluded to and not formally announced. But it got me thinking on what I'd like to see, should a sequel become a reality.

Mozilla 0.8.1 Released -- 8:55 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Version 0.8.1 of Mozilla, the cross-platform, open-source web browser project has been released! Check out the release notes and then get downloading!.

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