BSD & Gaming

Let’s face it no matter who you are, you have your preferences about what operating system you like best, we all do. Some are so fanatically driven that they will go into a frothing rage fit when they find their opinions challenged. I try to see things as a learning experience and hopefully take away some useful information from. I even admit Windows has it’s place in the computing world, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it!

Despite the fact that BSD has been around in one form or another since 1977…. Linux based operating systems have always gotten the limelight in the press. From my observations I think this is mainly due to BSD getting tied up with IP fights in the courts [USL v. BSDi] as well as the fact that  for a long time development was focused on servers not on the desktop. In fact Linus is even quoted as saying in an interview that “If 386BSD had been available when I started on Linux, Linux would probably never had happened.” In my mind linux and BSD devotees should consider themselves on the same team rather than at odds.

With all that said, many Linux fans have poo-poo’d BSD for the desktop as long as I can remember, while controversy one way or the other will never truly be put to rest because of emotional zeal, Phoronix has a nice article detailing a default install of PC-BSD 8.2 vs a default install of Ubuntu 11.04 with an eye focused on gaming. The end results were a respectable show of performance by PC-BSD that took the win. To me it’s not proof of who is better…. it’s simply one more statement in a long line of examples over the years,  that there are other choices for your desktop besides Linux based distributions if you don’t want Windows.

Read all about FreeBSD’s results here at this link – [LINK]

Photoshop is a really powerful application, and the recent versions have some pretty amazing capabilities. The downside for somebody like me is the cost of it. While many software applications give discounts to students, that doesn’t help me because my student days are long since over. Even if I had a student discount it still requires an investment which I need for other things given the state of the economy. If I was a professional in a position where the expense was necessary it’d be worth it. However I’ve been using a free open source alternative that does everything I’ve needed so far.. The Gimp.

The Gimp has been around a really long time, I’ve been using it off and on for ages now. While I love the fact that there is a version available for FreeBSD, PCBSD, or the various linux flavors, there are even downloads compatible with Windows making it available to a huge audience. It is a quite powerful image manipulation program in it’s own right with plenty of free plugins, filters, and brushes to suit your needs.

The Gimp’s layout can throw people off balance if they are used to photoshop. Even though many of the features and tools are the same in function, they may have a different name or place to find them that can be confusing for photoshop users. There is a version available that tries to ease that learning curve with a more familiar layout called GimpShop. Since I am not a photoshop user I’ve never tried GIMPshop, but for someone interested in trying an alternative or wanting to transition over to free software it might be worth looking into.

The Gimp definitely has a slot in my “must have software” list and I think if you give it a shot I believe you’ll like it as well.

The Gimp – [LINK]

GimpShop – [LINK]