Re: OT: America's Army
Leo Spalteholz <leo@spalteholz.ca> writes:
> On June 22, 2003 10:25 am, Bijan Soleymani wrote:
> > Paul Johnson <baloo@ursine.ca> writes:
> > > For all you Linux gamers out there, The United States Army
> > > announced Version 1.7.0 of America's Army, introducing Linux
> > > support for the first time.
> > >
> > > You can download it here:
> > > ftp://ftp.stenstad.net/mirrors/icculus.org/armyops-lnx-170.sh.bin
> > > http://ftp.eongames.com/icculus.org/armyops/armyops-lnx-170.sh.bi
> > >n
> > > http://www.3ddownloads.com/linuxgames/americas_army/armyops-lnx-1
> > >70.sh.bin
> > > http://guinness.devrandom.net/~primus/armyops-lnx-170.sh.bin
> > > http://treke.net/downloads/armyops-lnx-170.sh.bin
> > > http://www.sh.nu/download/armyops-lnx-170.sh.bin
> > >
> > > Official website: http://www.americasarmy.com/
> > >
> > > True to the DoD's recent affinity for Linux, and having tried the
> > > game already on my roommate's Windows box, I can safely say the
> > > Linux version is *much* more stable and less choppy running than
> > > the Windows version. Truely a win from an unexpected source for
> > > the Linux gamer.
> >
> > Is this Free Software? It doesn't seem to be. It's nice that the US
> > army is willing to release violent propaganda for "Linux" systems,
> > but if it's not Free Software then I don't see how this is any
> > better than running quake3 or unreal tournament.
>
> Oh for christs sake, come down from your ivory tower already.
> Its better than running quake3 or UT because unless you're stealing
> those games, you have to pay for them.
No I've seen gratis (free to download) versions of quake3 out
there. They might have been demos but they let you play online. And I
don't mind paying for software if I am free to copy, modify, etc. it :)
> Is that not enough for you? Stop your bitching and complaining and
> appreciate this for what it is, a free, high quality game with good
> linux support. I think its amazing that this even got done.
>
> Damn these free software holier than thou zealots really drive me
> through the roof. Sorry to everyone else for the rant.
I'm sorry that I offended you by pointing out that this is not
technically Free Software. Debian aims to be a Free operating
system. Now I might run a piece of proprietary software if I really
have no choice (I even use Windows), but I always consider the
alternatives.
I think that the engine to quake2 is available as Free Software (GPL'd
I think) and it can load custom maps and such, which are also
free. That's much more amazing. A commercial company GPL'd a major
game. It's not that surprising that the US army releases a binary only
copy of their game for linux.
And there are new Free games like flightgear. I've had a lot of fun
with those, and other smaller games.
Bijan
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