Okular 1.10 PDF reader

PDF or Portable Document Format is good choice  you have to  print, share or email documents, especially if they are large and have lots of graphics. Most brochures and technical manuals you download from websites are in PDF (Portable Document Format). My go-to PDF reader on on any platform is Okular.

Okular is a multi-platform document viewer developed by the KDE community and based on Qt and KDE Frameworks libraries. It has been available in the Windows store since September of 2019. 

Features

Supported Formats: PDF, PS, Tiff, CHM, DjVu, Images, DVI, XPS, ODT, Fiction Book, Comic Book, Plucker, EPub, Fax

Sidebar with contents, thumbnails, reviews and bookmarks

The official version obeys the DRM restrictions of PDF files by default, which may prevent copying, printing, or converting some PDF files. However, there is an option in the settings to disable DRM limitations in Settings -> General -> Program Features -> Obey DRM limitations

The right gloves for the right job.

Rival makes the best bag gloves. They are one of the few companies that specifically have bag gloves and sparring gloves. I never understood why some boxing companies promote all-purpose training gloves meant for both hitting the bag and sparring. I mean can a glove have dense-foam that’s meant for bag work and soft foam for hitting an opponent?  I do understand that a pair of quality gloves can be super expensive, therefore people rather purchase a single quality pair to handle everything. In my humble opinion, you would be better off getting a economy pair of sparring gloves and a second pair of economy bag gloves. It could definitely save on wear and tear when using both pairs of gloves for their specific designed purpose.  

I use my adidas adispeed 501 "exclusively" for sparring (which rarely happens). Adidas does have a bag version of this glove called the ADISBG350.

My Adidas Adispeed 501

I use my Rival rs100s mostly on a double-end bag when I first got them. The package did recommend breaking in their gloves on the bag and/or punch mitts for at least 10 to 20 rounds before using them in sparring. so when I first got them I did spend a lot of time on bags and pads with them. Now I mainly have them as a secondary pair just in case somebody may want to spar with me. 

Rival rs100s

I saw a YouTube channel called Fit 2 Box. The guy in his recent video profiled his top five bag gloves. The thing I noted the most was the only non rival glove on his list was from a company called Phenom.  What caught my attention  was the number 2 glove on his list. It was the RFX-Guerrero bag glove, a glove I have played around with extensively. The RB10 Intelli-Shock bag gloves was his number one. The thing about those RB10 gloves, they retail for $30 USD more than  RFX-Guerrero bag gloves.  

The main plus of the RFX-Guerrero bag V gloves is  that they are technically fight gloves. Therefore, you will be feeling a lot more impact than typical training gloves. Rival’s V-Strap Wrist-Lock 2 System and 15° angled cuff will also give you a lace-up fit. Unlike fight fight gloves these gloves have multiple layers of high density foam. So they will last much longer then even a grant pro fight glove. If I ever purchase a pair. I'm going to make sure I go with the Oleksandr Usyk colors. 

Oleksandr Usyk

Looks are subjective but I personally think white and gold color scheme are their best color. Hopefully one day they will add metallic colors.

Conclusion

So save some wear and tear on your gloves. Get a pair of economy bag gloves and if you spar a pair of economy sparring gloves. If you do not plan on practicing  with a live person opposing you then only consider high quality bag gloves. Don't waste your money on a sparring glove. I own a pair of Rival Econo Bag Gloves. These boxing gloves are perfect for beginners. They only cost $35 USD. However, if you're the type that spends 30 rounds everyday on bags and pads then you might want to look at the higher priced RB10 bag gloves or even the premium priced RFX-Guerrero Intelli-Shock Bag Glove. They are both very durable I hear. I have never owned nor personally tested neither pair. On a side note I also highly recommend working with a water bag when you can. An aqua punching bag will save you some dollars in the long run due to your gloves not taking as much of a beating in comparison to a harder, traditional bag.

Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle

I talked about beat-em-ups in my in a previous post. Even though a game called Kung Fu Master is possibly the world's first beat em up video game. It is thought that a little known game called Renegade is what influenced the modern beat him up game as we know it. Renegade is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up developed by Technos Japan and distributed by Taito for the arcades in 1986. Technos’s 1987 follow up, Double Dragon, lit the arcade world on fire. Sega redefine the genre with altered beast in 1988. Then Capcom in 1989 gave us final fight. After that, Capcom  delivered the barbarian beaters The King of Dragons And Knights of the Round in 1991. My favorite beat-em-ups game of the 90s was called Die Hard Arcade,  which was a  over-the-top game with gore-free violence which was played for comedic effect. In recent years, the genre has seen a resurgence in with games like River City girls and The Take Over along with the return of both Shaq fu and Streets of Rage.  The beat 'em up genre has also seen a resurgence within indie game development, resulting in unique titles such as The Behemoth's Castle Crashers and SebaGamesDev, Blitworks Fight'N Rage.

Most of us will never get a chance to play games like final fight on an arcade cabinet. Before things like the smartphone, people killed time by feeding quarters to an arcade machine as you dried your clothes at the laundromat. In the 90s Capcom dominated the arcade machines in local gas stations and convenience stores. Fortunately, now everyone can now play these classic games in the comfort of their own homes (unless you happen to own mobile versions) in the form of Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle.

Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle

Pro: 

Arcade perfect ports

Unlimited continues

Does not feel like a cash grab

Con: 

Dungeons and  Dragons: Tower of Doom, Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow over Mystara, and Alien vs. Predator is missing from this collection. 

As a reminder here's my test system:

OS: GamerOS-17

CPU:  Ryzen™ 7 2700 

GPU: Powercolor Red Dragon RX 5700

RAM: 16GB (2 x 8GB) (PC4 19200)

MOTHERBOARD: ASRock AB350M Pro4  (BIOS 5.90 2019/7/5)

STORAGE:  Intel 545s Series 2.5" 256GB +WB Blue 1TB 7200 RPM 

Linux 5.6.3

Mesa 20.0.4

Nvidia 440.82

Proton 4.11-13

Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle is a compilation that collects the arcade versions of seven beat 'em ups from Capcom:

Final Fight 

Captain Commando 

The King of Dragons 

Knights of the Round

Warriors of Fate 

Armored Warriors 

Battle Circuit 

(No Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. What a shame)

For many Final Fight is the headliner of the collection, because arguably it's the most known and the simplest game in the collection. Final fight 

is still fun 30 thirty years after its original release. All seven games can be individually completed within approximately an hour. They all have their challenges. However with unlimited continues, as well as the ability to start with more lives, and choose the rate at which the difficulty increases from a variety of levels, no game will ever be too difficult to finish. If you get a phone call or something you can save your progress in each game. There are not a whole lot of beat em up around these days because they do get awfully repetitive after a while. However, for me, games where you can beat up people are both addictive and enjoyable. Capcom has done an excellent job introducing the seven games to a whole new generation of gamers. 

Note: You can get many great Beat 'Em Up games on other hardware platforms

Age of covid-19 the home workout

The double end bag, also known as the floor-to-ceiling bag, is a small, circular bag connected on both ends of the floor and ceiling by an elastic cord. Every professional boxer uses double-end bags for training because it is important to their development as a boxer. Most people like to use the heavy bag all the time. However the heavy bag teaches a lot of bad habits. Punchers get used to executing slow combinations on a stationary heavy bag. The double end bag corrects this deficiency by  developing cardiovascular endurance, while getting your arms accustomed to throwing multiple combinations at a fast pace. The intended purpose of the double end bag is to improve hand speed and timing, not power.

You don't have to be a professional boxer to use the double-end bag. Us mere mortals can also benefit from chasing a double end bag around. It will force you to focus your body and mind on the task at hand, all the time. It will exercises your, heart, chest, lungs, hips, and various muscles in your arms and legs. Believe it or not, you can install something like this in a very small space.

MaxxMMA Double End Striking Punching Bag Kit is a good economic option for people who have small spaces and very little money. It's easy to set up even in a small apartment. You can take it down and put it in the closet when you're done. The kit includes base (you can fill with water or sand), one pair of mitts, pump and door frame fixer. Now keep in mind it's not gym quality (but then we're not in the gym are we ).  However you're supposed to be working on timing speed and accuracy. You can use your bare hands or the included mitts. In fact you can use any pair of gloves you have lying around to add extra weight to workout your arms and shoulders.

MaxxMMA 8.7”Double End Bag

Across the country with many gyms still being closed, something like the MaxxMMA Double End Striking Punching Bag Kit could be a good alternative for people with small spaces. Both length and tension of the elastic ropes are adjustable and tool-free. It is simple to mount on door frames with adjustable door frame mount. No damage to your door frame and no screws needed.

Bag gloves and 4' hand pump are included.

Base weights 13 lbs when filled with water.

Ball: 8.7” dia.
Base: 12.2” dia. x 4.1”
Dimensions: 12.2” dia. x 102.4”
Color Box: 16.2” x 5.1” x 16.2”

Age of COVID-19: Shift Blame

The attorneys general for Kansas and Missouri are among 18 state attorneys general who signed a letter to U.S. congressional leaders asking for an investigation in the Chinese government’s role with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic.

First let's start off with the exact definition of what a pandemic is...

According to Wikipedia: A pandemic (from Greek πᾶν, pan, "all" and δῆμος, demos, "people") is an epidemic of disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of people.

According to Webster dictionary :an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population : a pandemic outbreak of a disease.


Typically pandemics happen when a something new emerges to infect people and can spread between people quickly. Since there really no pre-existing immunity against the infection of some type, it spreads worldwide. Now I will be the first to say that I'm no expert on pandemics. Not something I read a lot about. I typically only read about viruses that effect computers. Of course all those viruses and infections are man-made. Trump the leader of the Trump administration informed the world that he always knew that this new virus was a pandemic before anyone else.

“This is a pandemic,” Trump said at a March 17 news conference. “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. All you had to do is look at other countries. ... No, I’ve always viewed it as very serious.”

My question has always been if Trump knew that this new virus was spreading across the world was a pandemic, why didn't he sound the alarm and warn the world? He kept insisting it was under the control, and definition of a pandemic is you're not in control. But yet on January 22nd Trump was asked,  if there were worries about a pandemic, Trumps reply:

“No. Not at all. And — we’re — we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

“I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away. They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine. So I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away.” Feb. 25 Trump

When members of the media and the public disagreed with his assessment of the outbreak. He posted on his Twitter account.

Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape! @CDCgov.....
8:03 AM - Feb 26, 2020

Now privately according to his own words. He ALWAYS felt it was a pandemic BEFORE anybody else knew. Publicly he criticized experts and members of the media for sounding the alarm about the coming health threat. But he later admitted he knew everything. He said he knew things were going to be bad.

"I knew everything. I knew it could be horrible, I knew it could be maybe good. I don't want to be a negative person...,...This [pandemic] is really easy to be negative about. But I want to give people hope too. You know I'm a cheerleader for the country — we are going through the worst thing that the country has probably ever seen."

Trump has on several-several occasions sowed doubt about the severity of the virus even using the word HOAX in an attempt to discredit his critics. He even use the word hoax at South Carolina event where the virus was being spread like wildfire. So what did the state of South Carolina do about Trump's dishonesty?  Attorney General Alan Wilson joined Missouri to go after China. Why is attorney general Wilson giving Donald Trump a pass? Trump came into his state and told his people at that rally misleading information concerning the health risks of the virus. Trump had every opportunity at that campaign rally to tell the world covid-19 was a pandemic. By his own admission he wanted to be this country's cheerleader, so he withheld his true feelings about what he knew.

The Chinese deny responsibility for what happened with coronavirus, and we all know that the Chinese government does have some credibility issues. However, Trump admits on the record, that he knew that it was a pandemic and didn't warn the public. My main question is...Why are the states giving a pass to an individual who admits he (Trump) hid the truth from us all?

Steam Play: Proton

Proton is program released by Valve. It is integrated into Steam Play to make playing Microsoft Windows games on GNU+Linux a simple  process. Proton is combined with Proton  D9VK for Direct3D 9, DXVK for Direct3D 10 and 11, and VKD3D for Direct3D 12.

A community fork known as Proton GE (GloriousEggroll) Edition is an unofficial build of Proton. It is maintained by Thomas Crider. The benefit of Proton GE over using the Valve provided official Proton is Proton GE will come with game fixes you need right away. Some patches introduced by this fork are merged with the official Proton builds provided by Valve. 

Need to know what games are working well under Proton? ProtonDB is an unofficial community website that collects and displays detailed data on how an individual got a particular game to work. It tells you what Linux distribution, kernel version, graphics card type along with driver version, and last but not least, commands for launch options. The rating scale is from "Borked" to "Platinum". 

The rating scale as written on ProtonDB

Platinum: Runs perfectly out of the box

Gold: Runs perfectly after tweaks

Silver: Runs with minor issues, but generally is playable

Bronze: Runs, but often crashes or has issues preventing from playing comfortably

Borked: Either won't start or is crucially unplayable

There’s about 100 games every month that get a Platinum rating according to ProtonDB. Platinum sets the bar high. Games with that rating just work out of the box  like native Windows 10 or macOS 10 games without requiring end-user tweaking.

The biggest problem to overcome is the anti-cheat software that's required for many multiplayer games. Valve is working on with services like Easy Anti-Cheat, but but as of this posting I honestly don't see anything with that changing soon.

Coronavirus Lawsuits

At least 7 class action lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. federal court against China related to the coronavirus including Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt. The accusation is China did little to stop the spread of covid-19. That may well be true. But why isn't Trump included in the lawsuit as co-defendant? Now maybe it's not legally possible to link both the Chinese and American administrations together in a conspiracy. So why haven't any of these attorneys generals sue the Trump administration?

President Donald Trump in many verifiable statements claimed he knew full well about the dangers of covid-19 from the beginning. Yet throughout the month of February, Trump did next-to-nothing to prepare the country, even as the virus spread outside of China. He said he knew from the start that thousands of Americans could die from the novel coronavirus but downplayed the threat because he wanted to stay positive and be a "cheerleader" for the country. I'm sure the leader of China would make the same argument.

During a coronavirus press briefing at the White House in March, President Donald Trump insisted that he’s long believed that the coronavirus  currently polarizing our country was a pandemic. He said "I’ve always (take note of ALWAYS) known this is a real—this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic" 

So if Trump himself knew before any expert in this country that this new virus was a pandemic then his administration should be sued by the state of Missouri. Trump is also liable for the spread because he continued to resist calls for social distancing, school closures and other steps that would helped Missouri in mid March. Under his leadership the administration did little to nothing to stop the spread. 

If state of Missouri really wants to be serious about this lawsuit they are filing. Then they have no choice but to include Trump and his administration in a similar lawsuit. But we all know that the leadership of Missouri would never allow that to happen. This lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt for the weak leaders of Missouri to avoid being abused by their Lord and savior, Donald John Trump.

Steam link revisited...

I got a steam link a few years back. Check out my original post here.

Valve discontinued the Steam Link in November 2018. However you can build your own Steam Link with software package for the Raspberry Pi .

I also built a Raspberry Pi steam link, check out my original post here.

The steam link and Gamer OS work together flawlessly. I have it connected wireless to my Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR450. 

Street Fighter V Champion Edition on Gamer-OS

Street Fighter V is now working in proton with the new version 5.0-7

Strangely enough, Street Fighter V was originally supposed to be a Linux native game, as it was announced by Capcom back in 2016. I wonder what happened with that? Definitely get the Champion Edition which includes all fighters, stages, and most of the costumes released through its fourth season. You get 40 fighters, 34 stages and over 200 costumes. Missing from this game are my favorite characters DJ, Fei Long, and Dudley. Street fighter 4 ultra offers a better classic roster. All your old favorites will be there and it works perfect on the Proton 4.11-12. I'm sure it works well under proton version 5.0-7. I just haven't had the opportunity to test it.

Playing Street fighter 5 on Steam Link provides a console-like experience. However keep in mind Performance also depends on your host system. It is wonderful to be able to put a powerful pc on any tv in an apartment without having to move without having to move a heavy PC around. Street fighter 5, with my home configuration streamed at a 60 frames per second over a 5GHz Wi-Fi connection.

Trumper's don't want to do test

"The media likes to say we have the most [coronavirus] cases, but we do, by far, the most testing. If we did very little testing, we wouldn't have the most cases. So, in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad."- May 6 Trump during a meeting with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. 

Let's be clear- when Trump says it would make "us" look bad, he really means himself.

GamerOS: Streets of Rage 4 working

GamerOS is based on Arch Linux. It offers Linux kernel version 5.6.3. It also offers Mesa 20.0.4 for OpenGL plus Vulkan support for both  Intel and AMD graphics. There is also the NVIDIA 440.82 proprietary driver for those who have Nvidia cards. 

The beat 'em up.

The first beat 'em up game was called Kung-Fu Master. A few years later I was introduced to the game at a laundromat called Double Dragon. The game just blew me away. It just kept stealing my quarters. It is arguably the best beat 'em up arcade game of all time. But when it comes to the home console, the Streets of rage series is best beat 'em-up games of all time. 

Streets of Rage is a series of side-scrolling beat 'em up video games that came out on Sega Genesis. Three games in the series were released between 1991 and 1994. My favorite character in the series was a kangaroo named simply Roo. If his bastard abusive trainer is killed, while keeping Roo from dying, he becomes playable joining your team when a continue is used. 

Streets of rage 4

As of 2020 we finally get Streets of rage 4. The game takes place ten years after the events of Streets of Rage 3. Like in most beat-'em-ups, Streets of Rage 4 will put you in situations where you are outmatched by a large horde of enemies. Fans will have no complaints in the visuals department, the animation is lovely and smooth, no slowdown even with lots of enemies on the screen at once, the character sprites and big along with bold  colorful  backgrounds. It actually makes a few advancements to the old beat em up formula from the past games. It has a juggle combo system that appeals more to modern game play. You have special moves that can help clear crowds. It's kind of long for an arcade-style linear beat-em-up, but still very short compared to many modern games. Unfortunately there is no GNU/Linux native version. However I do have it working well under proton 5.0-7. I won't say it's perfect but it's pretty close. 

 Test system.

CPU:  Ryzen™ 7 2700
GPU: Powercolor Red Dragon RX 5700
RAM: 16GB (2 x 8GB) (PC4 19200)
MOTHERBOARD: ASRock AB350M Pro4  (BIOS 5.90 2019/7/5)
STORAGE:  Intel 545s Series 2.5" 256GB +WB Blue 1TB 7200 RPM

Motile M142: Update

Motile M142

Motile14

A little while ago I bought the Motile M142 (14″ FHD IPS/Ryzen 3500U/8GB RAM/256GB SATA SSD) for $300. For the past few months it has been be bouncing up and down in price (it was also originally priced at $700). Much more powerful than an equivalent priced chromebook. It is a Walmart-only brand designed  by Tsinghua Tongfang Co., Ltd. The only real negative I found with this laptop in my original post was the single-channel memory. Ryzen benefits nicely from dual channel. Dual channel memory configuration can make a big difference in a CPU-limited scenario. And if you’re gaming on integrated graphics such as on a Ryzen APU dual-channel memory can increase your average frame rate in most games by 10-20 percent, or even more. But on the plus side this laptop does accept a RAM module up to 32 GB.

From my previous post... I can tell you Linux installations will have no issues with this machine. The BIOS is basic simple with the choice between UEFI (no GUI) or legacy (also no GUI) with the default being UEFI. Additional specs include AMD Radeon Vega 8 graphics, and lots of ports: 2 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0, 1 HDMI, 1 USB Type-C, and 1 Aux/Audio jack. 

Most of the negative that people posted about I really didn't see. The battery life is good, even with heavy use, it goes for 3 hours easily before I have to charge it. I ordered the silver model of the laptop, there are no issue with not being able to see the back-lit keyboard in the dark.  I connected it to my 38" LG tv and played a few games, more on that later. Things like YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion has played video at 1080p without issue. When I do put it to charge, while in use from about 10% to 100%, it takes about an hour.

Gaming on the Motile M142

System specifications:

Ryzen 3500U 4 cores 8 threads
Radeon Vega 8 graphics
8GB* RAM (single-channel)
Rocket NVMe 256GB *

*Usable ram is only 5.8GB due to the fact that the Vega 8 graphics uses 2GB of RAM.
*Sabrent Rocket NVMe is an upgrade to the sata m.2 that was pre-installed on the Motile.

Distro tested on:

Manjaro 20 (Lysia)
Mess 20.0.5
Linux 5.6.7-1
(KDE) Plasma 5.18.4.1

Games tested:

Tomb Raider  2013 (Linux version)
30 FPS
720 medium

Life is strange 2 (Linux version)
30 FPS
720p medium preset

A Plague Tale: Innocence (Windows version GOG+Lutris)
29 FPS
720 medium preset

Predictably, the performance of a laptop built around the 3500U will not perform very well with with most modern AAA games.

Currently the price of the Motile 14 is a little higher then when I purchased it. Could be supply chain issues, I don't know.

Gamer-OS:Crafted Specifically for Gaming

GamerOS can run games natively that have been developed for Linux and purchased from the Steam store.  While SteamOS is based on Debian, GamerOS is based on Arch Linux, making it easier to supply updated packages. GamerOS offers  the latest Linux 5.6.3 updates such as kernel, Mesa 20.0.4 for OpenGL and Vulkan support for Intel and AMD graphics and NVIDIA 440.82 driver ( OpenGL and Vulkan). The downside to this distribution is it does not yet appear on distrowatch, therefore it has very low visibility.

In this post I wanted to focus on one games that don't need proton to run. Series such as Doom 2016, Metro Exodus and Call of Duty are Windows exclusive games. The list of linux games that are guaranteed to work on GamerOS it's just less extensive. If you want to check whether a game is written for Linux, simply look it up on Steam and check for the penguin or Steam os logo. There are roughly 2,000 Linux games available through Steam, including major titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dust: An Elysian Tail, and Rise of the Tomb Raider: Definitive edition.

The steam app is it's not the only place you can download games from. Flathub also gives you access to many other native Linux games. Flathub is a third party repository of applications that are packaged in the Flatpak format. Games like super tux and Frozen bubble are available via Flathub.


Linux native games: Linux+steam

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is packed with content. It has everything. It has the final chapter of Lara Croft’s origin story, the Season Pass containing multiple challenge tombs, missions, weapons, and gameplay adjustments. The graphics are great, the landscape is stunning and predators especially jaguars look very realistic. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a GNU+Linux game so everything works well out of the box.

Knights of the Old Republic 2 (Kotor 2)

Thanks to developer Aspyr Media, Knights of the Old Republic 2 (Kotor 2) is available on Linux. In my humble opinion this is the best RPG ever made. The original was tough to beat. Even after 15 years this Kotor 2 still outmatches everything anything Star wars in terms of plot, characters, mechanics and gameplay. The game has also been updated with native widescreen resolution support resolution support up to 4K and even 5K. I only play at 1080p myself but for those of you out there that have a 5K screen you're in for a treat. Again no type of tweaks necessary Kotor 2 is a GNU+Linux native game.

Dreamfall Chapters

Dreamfall chapters is the 3rd and final game in the Longest Journey/Dreamfall saga, continuing on the story of Zoë and Kian from Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. The Original Dreamfall game ended on a cliffhanger. This one concludes the story and does it quite well.  Dialogues are nice, music is cool, graphics are ok. As a Linux game no type of tweaks are necessary.

On a side note I have not tested  Dreamfall: The Longest Journey on GamerOS personally. However using the standard steam client in the past under Proton: 4.11-4. it played perfectly from launch. It ran a solid 60fps at 1080p on High settings. No issues encountered and no tweaks required.

The Longest Journey I was never able to get to work.

Linux open-source games: Flathub

Xonotic

Xonotic (a fork of Nexuiz) is a free and open-source fast paste arena first-person shooter. This game will pretty much will run on ultra settings on any modern equipment. The graphics quality is comparable to commercial video games  released around 2007. It is one of the most visually-impressive open-source games on any platform.

Frozen Bubble

Frozen Bubble is the first open source video game ever played. Tux the Linux mascot has to shoot colored frozen bubbles to form groups of the same color. Match 3 or more of the same color bubble to clear them from the playing field. If you clear all of the bubbles, you move on to the next level. If the bubbles pile up and cover the entire screen, you lose the game and restart the entire level.

SuperTuxKart

SuperTuxKart's gameplay is similar to that of the Mario Kart series. Unlike Mario Kart, SuperTuxKart has a story associated with gameplay, similar to Crash Team Racing. Instead of Nintendo characters you get the mascots of free and open-source projects like:

Gnu of the Gnu project
Referee of Thunderbird
Tux of the Linux kernel
Geeko of openSUSE
Amanda of  Window Maker
Sara of OpenGameArt website
Konqi of KDE
Xue of Xfce
Pidgin of Pidgin
Puffy of OpenBSD
Minix of Minix 3
And many more..

Test machine:

Distro: GamerOS:17
Linux: 5.6.3
Mesa: 20.0.4

CPU: Ryzen™ 7 2700
GPU: Powercolor Red Dragon RX 5700
RAM: 16GB (2 x 8GB) (PC4 19200)
MOTHERBOARD: ASRock AB350M Pro4  (BIOS 5.90 2019/7/5)
STORAGE: Intel 545s Series 2.5" 256GB +WB Blue 1TB 7200 RPM

This is my 4th post on GamerOS. I will posting more in the future...
Past post...part 1  part 2 part 3

Age of COVID-19: Fantasy facts

I was on YouTube. And I saw an interesting video. Now I did go out and look at other videos independent of YouTube to make sure I wasn't looking at some sort of deepfake.

The video appeared to be a segment on fox when Trump said 40,000 Americans who were brought back to US after the (Feb. 2) COVID-19 travel ban were tested by states. That wouldn't be an alternative fact. That would be a "fantasy fact". Early on, all COVID-19 testing was done at the CDC with its own kit, and it performed well. Those Kits were used to diagnose the first COVID-19 case in the U.S. on Jan. 20 from someone  returning from Wuhan to Washington state. The CDC claimed  between Jan. 18 and Feb. 23, the agency tested 2,620 specimens from just about a 1,000 people. Definitely far short of 40,000.

But here's what a fantasy comes in at..

The CDC shipped its kits out to qualified state and local public health labs in an effort to ramp-up testing. One problem. The kits were flawed. In other words the 40,000 Americans that came into the United States after the travel ban (Feb. 2) were not  "tested by states"

Age of Covid-19: once again Missouri is an embarrassment on the world stage

Missouri is suing China over coronavirus impacts saying the country did 'little to stop the spread of the disease.'

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed the civil lawsuit in federal court in the eastern district of Missouri. Guess who was mysteriously not named in a lawsuit? The Trump administration. It was Donald Trump himself who said he knew there was a pandemic before anybody else.

"This is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. All you had to do was look at other countries." - March 2020 Trump said at a press conference with his coronavirus task force.

From January until March, he kept telling the people of Missouri and the rest of the world that the virus was under “control”. Therefore the cases were going “down, not up” and would even completely disappear with warm weather by April. He often contradictied his own health experts. When the World Health Organization said the virus outbreak was a pandemic. Trump administration assured all of us that COVID-19 was under “control” in America (I'm assuming that included Missouri) and suggested it would incur little economic damage, magically disappearing by April.

He felt it was a pandemic but he didn't tell but he didn't tell the good people of Missouri. In fact on CNBC Jan. 22 he was asked..if there were worries about a pandemic,  And Trump replied, "No. Not at all. And — we're — we have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It's going to be just fine."

When asked if he thinks China is covering up the coronavirus, Trump replied..

“No. China is working very hard….They’re working really hard, and I think they are doing a very professional job. They’re in touch with the World [Health] Organization. CDC also. We’re working together.”- Trump February 7th

Trump tweeted this early March

The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant. Surgeon General, “The risk is low to the average American.”
-Mar 9, 2020 Trump tweet

Trump by his own admission in front of a nationwide audience at an official task force briefing  stated for the record,  he felt it was a pandemic before all the top scientists in the world. But from January to March he downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic. Even going so far as to call the criticisms and the concerns the "new hoax."  By Trump's own admission, in front of a live TV audience stated, as president of the United States he's never saw the memos  circulated through the White House by his top trade adviser beginning in January. The memo laid out an estimated death toll of up to half a million Americans. And the cost to the U.S. economy possibly soaring to nearly $6 trillion. So it seems to me that both China and the Trump administration did nothing to stop the spread of the novel virus. Looks like they (China and the Trump administration) are co-defendants to me.

So my ultimate question is.. why is the Trump administration not being also sued for what happened to Missouri's economy?

Manjaro 20 Desktop

Since I am now living in the Age of Covid-19, I am finding more time on my hands to write my random thoughts.

We GNU+Linux users are no longer one percenters. According to recent statistics, GNU+Linux is around 2% on PCs.

I have been using Manjaro 20 KDE for past few days. The KDE version comes with Plasma 5.18. The new Breath2 themes include light and dark themes, skins, an animated splash-screen and more. It also includes KDE 20.04 Apps. In my opinion Manjaro stands out as one of the main Arch-based Linux distributions. Manjaro 20, brings many updates and various new features for a full-fledged GNU+Linux desktop experience. It offers Xfce, KDE and GNOME as core desktop options. The Xfce 4.14 desktop environment is lightweight, which makes it fast on low demand on low range systems. KDE Plasma 5.18.4.1, is a very modern looking and flexible desktop. It is flashy and quite resource heavy but not a problem for most modern PCs. The GNOME 3.36.1 is not a traditional desktop, so users can focus on their tasks more easily. Regardless of which desktop style you select, the welcome screen (Manjaro Hello) introduces new users Manjaro to documentation, support tips, and links to the project site.

Manjaro 20.0 "Lysia" is based on Arch and uses the Linux Kernel 5.6 which brings better hardware support for thunderbolt, Nvidia, and USB4 devices. The Manjaro 20.0 package manager received some new features like support for Snap and Flatpak by default. Manjaro users can now install snaps or flatpaks using Pamac in the user interface and in Terminal. It would be unfair, however, to dismiss  Manjaro as a Arch clone. True both Arch Linux and Manjaro are rolling distributions, which means that updates are released on a regular basis.Therefore you do not have to worry about an annual system re-installation.

• Manjaro will never be quite as bleeding-edge as Arch. Manjaro software is subject to further checks by developers and testers for potential stability issues before being released to the stable repositories for public use.
• Manjaro updates and automates many of the things that Arch expects you to do yourself. Manjaro updates only stable stuff. 
• Manjaro includes a welcome window called Manjaro Hello, which offers new users help to familiarize them with Manjaro. Manjaro Hello installs applications with one-click download and automatic installation.
• There is a Settings Manager which allows you to select from a number of available kernels, and install third party drivers for your hardware.
• Manjaro comes preinstalled with Steam, so there’s no need to go to a website and download it manually.

 

Forget about Ubuntu Linux, because the superior Pop!_OS 20.04 LTS is here

I love this post..