Apparently I'm a Linux User Now

[Fenrir]

I set out to dual-boot Windows Vista and Ubuntu Linux. After a few bumbling mistakes, I wound up reformatting everything and giving Ubuntu the whole hard drive.

So, any exclusively-Linux-based roguelikes out there I should be trying?

[Ancient]

Tough question. Developers who code on Linux rarely have this "screw portability" mental image thus most stuff that runs on GNU/Linux will also run on MAC OS X and Windows. The only exceptions I know are games not mature enough to have a port and abandoned projects. You may want to check them out though:

Xenocide (newer Windows refuses to let easily resize console to Xenocide's needs)
Interhack (Windows not yet fully supported)
Tzar (Windows not yet supported)
Obdur (Windows no longer supported)

Since these are aimed at Linux users be prepared to deal with manual compilation. GNU Autotools, GNU Make and what-not. Of those first is a gem, rest are poor.

[corremn]

You could try your query in the roguelike database - http://www.roguetemple.com/irldb/
I am unsure when it was last updated though.

[Z]

That's true, almost everything which is available on Linux is also available on Windows. This is not because Linux is worse, but because it is more polite (most programs written for Linux are open source and written using programming tools which have been ported to Windows by people who want to use best aspects of both).

On the other hand, I have found out that I can run some (non-roguelike) games under Wine, even though I had trouble with them on the real Windows system. Probably it is more compatible with older Windows versions (and maybe also hardware) than the newer ones.

I also have only Linux installed on my current computer, but for testing Hydra Slayer on Windows and such, I have my old Windows inside, as a virtual machine.

And IRLDb is automatically updated each day.

[Krice]

My new small laptop has issues with Windows 7. Looks like 1GB is not enough to run 7 without huge swapping from slow hard disk. If I can't solve that by tweaking then I have to think the horrible possibility to try linux...

[AgingMinotaur]

What Z said, basically.

(most programs written for Linux are open source and written using programming tools which have been ported to Windows by people who want to use best aspects of both)

Which means that (almost?) anything that can/must be compiled under Linux, can also be compiled under Windows or OSX. Compiling isn't usually very difficult, BTW, just slightly ritualistic/cumbersome. You can do some interesting stuff with compiling, if you're interested in messing with the source or compiling against certain flags, but most of the time, you can also just run a few set commands to get a working program with sane defaults.

Have fun, and good luck. And be sure to install the package bsdgames-nonfree, so you can play Rogue.



As always,
Minotauros

[Fenrir]

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup requires GNU gcc and g++, GNU make, libncurses or libcurses.

GNU gcc requires GMP 4.2+, MPFR 2.3.1+ and MPC 0.8.0+.

It's an exponential attack of the alphabet.

It'll take some time to get used to this. Ah, well, figuring out this stuff is why I signed on in the first place.

EDIT: Ok, apparently sudo apt-get install makes this sort of thing easier.

[Fenrir]

Sorry for the double post, but what is the standard Linux-based code editor? I've no problem using vi and vim, but I'm open to other suggestions if you have 'em.

[JLC]

There are no standards. You use what you feel comfortable with. If you installed ubuntu then you probably have gedit installed. If you don't like it, there are tons of them waiting for your.

Most programmers use either vim or emacs. They are pretty awesome as soon as you get used to their keys.


PS: Yes, package managers are great (apt-get in ubuntu). You'll be installing software in little less more than what it would take you to open your browser and search for a download button in no time.

Welcome to linux

[Fenrir]

There are no standards. You use what you feel comfortable with. If you installed ubuntu then you probably have gedit installed. If you don't like it, there are tons of them waiting for your.

Most programmers use either vim or emacs. They are pretty awesome as soon as you get used to their keys.

Ah, thanks. I used the wrong word. "Most popular", not "standard".

[stu]

I run slickedit or netbeans (netbeans has a good c/c++ editor). eclipse does c/c++ too but I'm in the netbeans camp regarding those two. Mostly I just use Slickedit for all my editing. You can get ultraedit now if you were familiar with that on windows. or jEdit which imo kicks ass! Until I bought slickedit I was a certified jEdit user

[Fenrir]

By the way, I'm liking roguelikes in fullscreen. I never understood why Microsoft removed the console's fullscreen capability.

[Z]

Fullscreen console is also my favorite way of playing roguelikes. (Several years ago I also did other operations (like editing files or ssh) on full screen, but now I use window environment, except for roguelikes, and when I just want to log on for a few minutes on my work computer, where it is faster to log on a console.)

I think they do not want to scare off "ordinary people" and for this reason they make it hard for the user to do scary stuff such as using the console, using it fullscreen (which is probably considered ugly by those not accustomed), performing file operations in a comfortable way, doing any programming or scripting, or playing roguelikes.

[elwin]

Welcome to the Dark Side.

I've found that Linux is good for staying on the bleeding edge of DCSS.  The downside of that is that the releases already feel out of date when they come out.

Though there aren't many Linux-specific roguelikes, playing and developing them just feels more natural on Unix.  You can have full-screen consoles with smooth clear fonts.  The manpages have detailed descriptions of all the curses functions.  And so on...