Linux has come a long way since Linus Torvalds developed his first kernel. Since the very beginning Linux was a dream for developers. Now that the OS has proven that it can provide one of the best (perhaps THE best) solution for e.g. Network- and Internet servers, the time has come to explore the quality of Linux in other areas. More specific, areas where traditionally non-Linux platforms like MS Windows and Apple Mac were dominant. The KDE (2.0 release is coming) and GNOME desktops give Linux a complete and smooth GUI environment. Linux makes the GUI free, open and configurable. Software like the various free Office suites and The GIMP are slowly putting Linux in reach of the non-technical computer user. Linus Torvalds knows what he's doing when he is aiming for better USB and plug-and-play support in the next (2.4) kernel. As he stated himself, Linux will be technically ready to take over world domination in maximum five years. On the road to there, one last hurdle has to be taken: the gaming market. More new games should be released for Linux. And that's just what's starting to happen right now...

Graphics

• Creating fire effects with The GIMP , by André Pascual
  How to create burning objects in just 5 steps.



• Sketch, vectorial drawing under Linux , by Yves Ceccone
  The advantages of a vectorial representation over bitmap is that files are smaller and the image can be enlarged significantly without differences in rendering (pixellisation). Sketch is written in Python, an object oriented interpreted programming language.

Software Development

• Perl II , by Guido Socher
  In the second part of the Perl tutorial we write our first real program.

Games

• Tux's secret obsession - Gaming under Linux , by Harald Radke
  This is a short overview over the gaming scene under Linux.
  
  
• Game Review - FreeCiv , by Harald Radke
  FreeCiv is an open source clone of Sid Meier's popular Civilisation

Applications

• Speeding up small databases on Linux , by Mark Nielsen
  A Ramdisk can be used to make small PostgreSQL databases really fast.

UNIX Basics

• How to use a Ramdisk for Linux , by Mark Nielsen
  This article shows how to use RAM as a virtual hard disk.