Or it could be that I happen to be running Linux (Xubuntu 6.06 - that is, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS with the XFCE 4.3~ X-Windows manager) on an atrociously old computer that should have been turned into a toilet paper dispenser a couple of years ago.

But since with a baby on the horizon, and fuel prices skyrocketing ever upward, my discretionary spending on new computers is very limited… so running Linux on the old AMD K7 box (733 MHz of pure blazing sluggishness) beats waiting 15 minutes for it to boot up Win XP. 

For all the hype… Linux is not something that "just works" out of the box (or in this case, off of the LiveCD) for most folks, especially if you are something of a "Windows Power User". There is much dinking about in config files, and if heaven forbid that you want to install a program that isn’t in your distribution’s (read: flavour of Linux) package management … you will find yourself actually compiling the program from the source code.

Of course, being something of a geek… that is no problem. It is just when after all the compiling is done, the program barfs up hair on your monitor that looks nothing like the pretty screen shots on the web site you downloaded the source from.

Or worse, you expect the game to actually respond in a reasonable amount of time to your mouse/joystick input. I mean, it could be my drivers or my geriatric computer…. but a part of me is still thinking that the source code could have been put together a bit more nicely: often I will load the Windows flavour of the same program (this time, packaged as a nice little *.exe installer file) and it runs "just right".

And don’t get me going on some of the lame graphics that the "best titles" in Linux gaming has to offer. I guess until there is a rea$on to develop games for Linux… I will be keeping a Windoze partition on my machines.