A Linux Experiment

[Mantra of Doom]

Hello all,

Recently, my fiancee challenged me to use Linux for two weeks... and for those two weeks, my harddrive with all its windows and all my cool junk will be hidden and I have to start fresh with a clean install of Fedora.

Now I know I can't work on the actual scripting of my game during this time, but I can still do the graphics... so what I'm asking is what sort of pixel-friendly programs are out there for linux?

I know I could probably get photoshop running under wine, but that might be a bit complex on the first day. What about other programs that are useful? Something like outlook express/windows mail?

Any tips or suggestions you guys can give me would be appreciated... I hope this little challenge won't end up with someone crying... though it would either be me crying or my fiancee after I beat him up to get my windows back...

[JimmyShelter]

The Gimp is the closest thing to Photoshop, that's a start.

[Gilbert]

Also, if you are going for 8-bit pixels, DP way, someone had finally picked up to continue the development of Grafx2 and it works on multi-platforms now.

[RickJ]

There are number of graphics programs to explore (Inkscape, Kivio, ...).  There ought to be an online  catalog of graphics programs that can be installed.  Get your fiancee to show them to you.

You may also be interested in installing VirtualBox.  The AGS editor (as well as other windows programs) runs just fine under virtual box.   At home I have VirtualBox running XP as the guest OS and AGS and other window programs running under that.

[AGA]

It's not really following a challenge to not use Windows if you're. ya know, using Windows (albeit in a virtual machine).

[rbaleksandar]

See the WineHQ for more details. If you want to run CS3 - forget about it. It crashes and is entitled - as in the table on Wine's page - "Garbage". If don't want to use Gimp, you can always do as RickJ adviced you. VirtualBox and VMware Workstation (not for free, but the trail version is for about 30 days I think but in all cases - at least 2 weeks ). Dunno about VirtualBox (haven't used latest several releases) but VMware supports DirectX9 for WinXP. So you can even play most games released lately but you'll need at 1/3 to 1/2 more RAM and CPU power than the normal requirements of the games. As for AGS - you won't even notice that you're running it in a virtual enviroment.
AGA, if he wants to use AGS for developing (not only running games), he can't throw Windows in the garbage. That's one of the few things that keeps it on my HDD (have a dual-boot with Ubuntu).

MantraofDoom, don't marry her. Now she does this when she's your fiancee. Can't imagine what evil tortures she's prepared for you when you put on the fetters...Uhhh, wedding ring. *caugh* *caugh*

[ThreeOhFour]

Quick! Change it! The fiancee is a him! The Mantra is a her! The foot resides within the mouth!

Also, linux? What is that, some new washing detergent or something? A new brand of engine oil perhaps?  

[LUniqueDan]

my fiancee challenged me to use Linux for two weeks...

Let her. [dot] That's always a bad sign.

[rbaleksandar]

Quick! Change it! The fiancee is a him! The Mantra is a her! The foot resides within the mouth!

Whut?! I've always thought that fiancee is for women and fiance is for men...Ah, it's all greek to me.
Well then...Please excuse my incompetence in this field. 

[ThreeOhFour]

Well if you see here:

though it would either be me crying or my fiancee after I beat him up to get my windows back...

my fiancee after I beat him up

beat him up

him

Then one can safely assume that the future wedding person is a him, regardless of spellings! Hooray!

[Mantra of Doom]

Thanks for all the suggestions... and to settle the debate on gender, I am a lady, and the fiancé (I can't spell, and didn't realize there were seven ways to spell that) is a man. He writes a techy sort of blog about free program solutions and wanted a windows person to make the jump to linux and describe the experience for people that want to know.

I'm also on linux right now, just got it all installed after a couple of missteps. Aside from a few kinks, things are going okay... and using any sort of virtual XP is illegal... since that is using windows and not Fedora. I already "sold out to the man" as some websites say since I loaded nvidia drivers from nvidia  :

That's a shame that CS3 doesn't run... But I found a list of really crazy-looking paint programs to tinker with. The only things I have left to do is to to try to get flash player working properly in firefox and try to find my network so I can grab the rest of my files off my other computer.

[TeenageAssassin]

you wanna try a challenge then try using MacOSX 10.5 you have basically no programs for it  even photoshop 5 refuses to work even tho it's macintosh compatible... so if you want a REAL challenge then i'll lend you my mac 

[rbaleksandar]

He writes a techy sort of blog about free program solutions and wanted a windows person to make the jump to linux and describe the experience for people that want to know.

So you're kind of experimental bunny? (the animal-meaning of the word of course)

and using any sort of virtual XP is illegal... since that is using windows and not Fedora.

I promise I won't tell a thing.

That's a shame that CS3 doesn't run...

Yep, but CS2 works as far as I remember. Go to the WineHQ (if you haven't been there already).

The only things I have left to do is to to try to get flash player working properly in firefox...

Whut's the problem? If you can't make it work (I'm surprised), you can always use Opera.

and try to find my network so I can grab the rest of my files off my other computer.

You mean your LAN or what?

PS: Sorry about the debate.

[Mantra of Doom]

you wanna try a challenge then try using MacOSX 10.5

Um... I don't think so, lol. I went through 4 years of graphic design school without touching a Mac and I hope to keep it that way. Don't ask me why, but I just don't like them. 

So you're kind of experimental bunny? (the animal-meaning of the word of course)

Yes, it's a hobby... at least this time I'm not eating 16 boxes of generic brand Mac & Cheese (that's a long story, but unrelated to anything here)

Yep, but CS2 works as far as I remember. Go to the WineHQ (if you haven't been there already).

Haven't made it there yet, but that's on my list of stuff to do.

  Whut's the problem? If you can't make it work (I'm surprised), you can always use Opera.

The problem was that something was blocking flash apps from running, flash websites worked, but the apps were blocked. Took about a day to figure out that stupid thing, but now that that works, I can move onto issue #2...

You mean your LAN or what?

Which is problem #2... I backed up a bunch of stuff to my server 2003 machine and well... Fedora doesn't yet recognize the network. I've only ever networked windows machines, so I'm a bit lost as to where I need to start. I have Samba installed, I'm just not sure what to actually do with it. I ran out of time over the weekend to tinker with it, so tonight's project is trying to get back on the LAN.

[SSH]

What do you call a man who lets you join computers together?

Spoiler

Alan!

*badum-tish*

[close]

[rbaleksandar]

You mean your LAN or what?

Which is problem #2... I backed up a bunch of stuff to my server 2003 machine and well... Fedora doesn't yet recognize the network. I've only ever networked windows machines, so I'm a bit lost as to where I need to start. I have Samba installed, I'm just not sure what to actually do with it. I ran out of time over the weekend to tinker with it, so tonight's project is trying to get back on the LAN.

  Well, since I have a dual boot I've never been interested in this. But you can always look what's on the internet. There are piles of tutorials about this I think.