To the right is a screenshot where you can see some of the new goodies.  Chief among them:

• Control locking (not just for when windows are resized… but also great for dealing with mobile devices with different resolutions).
• Some new UI controls.
• Window background color.

There’s a bunch of other goodies as well… including a timer block and some cool new functionality revolving around dictionaries.

To coincide with 4.4 Beta, I’ll also be releasing Linux Tycoon for Android.  Which has been built, 100%, in Illumination.

Just wanted to give you all a heads up — because this is pretty freaking rad.

Ok.  This is really just for the heck of it.  Time for a ridiculously awesome bundle deal.

For the next 24 hours, you can pick up a copy of every piece of software I make for $25.  All of them.  25 bucks.  Total.

This includes a game builder, an app builder, a comic strip designer and games.  So, thus, this is the “Build Stuff Then Play A Game” bundle!  Shazam!

What’s included:

Illumination Software Creator Deluxe Edition – Build your own software visually (no coding).

BLABA Deluxe Edition – Build your own video games visually (no coding).

Radical Comic Designer – Create your own comic books or comic strips.

Linux Tycoon – Simulate the thrill of building and managing your own Linux Distro.

2299 : THE GAME – An old-school inspired adventure game.

Normally this would cost [Bryan does some math] $89.95.

If you buy it before 8am (Pacific Time) tomorrow morning (Wed, May 16th) you can have it all for $25.

Note: Every piece of software in this bundle?  They all run on Windows, Linux and Mac.  Every single one.  [Except for Radical Comic Designer... that one only runs on Windows and Linux.]

Seriously.  That’s like a 7 million percent discount (give or take).  We’re talking cyborg-unicorn-riding-a-double-rainbow-generated-by-lasers level of discount here.

Six.  Freaking. Years.

And I realized that I’m slowly forgetting a lot of the little details about how this whole crazy thing came together.  So it’s time for the official history of the Linux Action Show.  In chronological order.

Fair warning: This is in no way interesting.  Nobody should read this.  Ever.

Repeated warning: Seriously.  Do.  Not.  Read.  This.

Ok.  Here we go.

January, 2006

Two buddies of mine, Chris (my co-host on the Linux Action Show) and John (who some of you will remember from a few other shows at Jupiter Broadcasting), and I were all Mac users.  Apple stickers and everything.

Sure, we were nerdy and loved us some Linux… but we were “Mac guys”.  At the time, I made my living writing and selling Mac software (with a few Windows ports here and there).

In early January, at MacWorld San Francisco, Apple announced a feature in Garageband that was called “podcast studio”.  Basically you start an iChat conference and Garageband records it.

We thought “a-ha!  We’ll start a podcast this way and we will be AWESOME!”.

So we did just that.  The result was a show called “CastaBlasta”.

Some of you may remember a “general nerd chat show” called “CastaBlasta” that we all did.  That was a reboot of this original show.

The original was started as a “Mac news show”.  But it quickly evolved into three guys making pseudo-racist jokes (mostly about “the irish” — two of the hosts being, in large part, Irish) and generally goofing off with live mics.

There were three or four episodes that were genuinely funny.  The rest… were just damned bad.  We had no clue what we were doing… this was our boot camp.

February, 2006

Remember how I said we were “Mac Guys”?

Well… there was this website called “ResExcellence”.  Back in the day this was a, rather cool, site devoted to ways you could customize MacOS (we’re talking “classic” MacOS here).  Skinning.  Resource Editing.  Etc.

Well, that site was about to be shut down due to lack of interest from the original guy that ran it.  So, Chris and I agreed to pay for the hosting to try and keep the site alive (it had years and years of tutorials and the like that would have been a shame to lose).

May, 2006

From February to May, we worked to make that Mac website as cool as we could… but the community behind that website did not approve.  [To put it mildly.]

They blamed us for the previous owner of the site leaving (even though that guy was just going throw the power switch to the off position — and not say a word about it — before we stepped in… ungrateful little *grumble* *grumble*…).  And they pretty much full-on revolted.

Even had a flurry of death threats against us.  Was pretty awesome.

June 10th, 2006

Right about then, we both decided we’d had enough of the Mac community, and jumped ship — heading over to the green, green fields of Linux.

We’d both used Linux plenty (we are nerds after all), but always “in addition to Mac, Windows, OS/2, etc.”.  Now we were making the leap, feet first, into a nearly 100% Linux computing life.

And it was wonderful.  For so many reasons.  So wonderful, in fact, that we decided to start a 2nd podcast.

But what to call it?

We went round and round with all sorts of names.  All of which are lost to me now.  I proposed “Linux Action Show” — because it had the word “Linux” in the name [see how clever I was?] — and it stuck.

So, on June 10th of 2006, The Linux Action Show was born.

It was me and Chris, talking into cheap condenser mics and me doing my damnedest to edit it together.  It was… rough.  But we kept at it.

July, 2006

Within a month we already had a good number of listeners.  Enough that we were convinced that the show was worth doing (and getting better at).

October, 2006

Interesting side-note: We had our first interview with Aaron Seigo of the KDE project right around here.  Primary topic: “What is KDE’s Plasma?”  That was in 2006.  It’s 2012 now (no need to check your calendar, I just did that).  Almost 6 years ago.  Crazy, right?

February, 2007

Right about this time, we got a new theme song.

We dipped into petty cash (ie “We asked our wives and if we could have some money”) to hire a musician to write and record us a theme song.

We didn’t really know what we wanted… just that we wanted it to sound “Action-y“… and I put in a request with the musician to have a “Sonic the Hedge-hog” vibe.

The result is the theme song you hear today.

Some people got a little cranky that we changed the theme song.  But they got over it.  Because the new song was awesome.

June 2007

As the Linux Action Show continued to grow, we made more and more jokes about building our own Linux distro [usually dubbed "LASnix"].

Eventually this “joke” turned into a full on real project.  We set up some dedicated forums, pulled together requirements, and [along with our awesome community] did some initial design work.  But, before long, that project generally fell apart and never really got off the ground.

But not before getting a name.  That name: “Jupiter”.

This came about as a combination of us both being big fans of “Lost in Space” combined with some ideas from the community.

May 2008

At this  point, the Linux Action Show was booming and we wanted to try our hand at earning some income from the show.  Mostly we just wanted to be able to cover our expenses (servers, recording hardware, etc.).

And we also wanted to try our hand at some new shows.  Making the Linux Action Show had been a blast but, after 2 years of doing it, we wanted to branch out a bit.

Chris and I decided to form a business and create a complete podcast network.

But what to name that new business?  We went round and round with a flurry of ideas (all of which are lost to time — though I recall several using “Action” rather prominently) but, eventually, we came back to a name that we liked in the past.

Jupiter Broadcasting is formed.

I recall that one of the big deciding factors for using this name, for me, was the dream of generating some original sci-fi shows.  The thought of making Jupiter Broadcasting into a general “nerd” online tv network, with both “chat shows” and original fictional shows, was quite exciting.

The first, and only, foray into the fictional space was Mack Murphy, P.I. — which lasted a total of 8 episodes.

August 2009

At this point Jupiter Broadcasting was a little over a year old… and we did the stupidest possible thing.

We killed the Linux Action Show.

Well.  Sort of.

Here’s how it kinda-sorta-happened:

Chris had been picking up the bulk of the editing duties for the Linux Action Show at this point (in the early days it was mostly me doing the editing work then, by about this time, it became mostly Chris) and, because we were doing more and more video, that work really couldn’t be done on Linux (certainly not at the time… and not in a time-efficient way).

So between video editing and his day job, most of his day was spent in front of a Mac or Windows PC.  Just how it had to be.  This combined with the fact that we are two nerds who like to tinker with anything we can get our hands on — resulted in a desire to have a show where we could talk about things like Haiku, AmigaOS (*cough* and Mac/Windows *cough*) and other super-nerdy “Computer” stuff that wasn’t specifically ”Linux”.

Then we thought, “Hey!  Let’s just re-brand the Linux Action Show so that we can use that show to talk about all this other stuff!”

Bam.  ”Linux Action Show” became “Computer Action Show”.

February 2010

For six months we tried to make it work.  It was a decent show really (the format was the same as before… just with less Linux and more… other stuff), but “yet another show about computers” was not what the world needed.

So, after roughly half a year, the Linux Action Show returned in all its glory.

Balance was restored to the universe.

September 2011

After having done the Linux Action Show (in one form or another) — and a number of other shows — for over 5 years, I needed to take a break to free up some time to work on other things (you can see what I was working up in that sidebar to the left) and spend some time with my family.

Allan, who had begun co-hosting another tech show at Jupiter Broadcasting, stepped in to serve as temporary co-host until I could return.

January 2012

Four months later, with my batteries recharged and whole lot more software created, I return to the Linux Action Show.

That brings us right up to today.  I probably missed some cool bits here and there, but this covers the key pieces of history I think.

It’s been a pretty fun ride thus far with the Linux Action Show.  We’ve done a lot of reviews, had a lot of great guests (ranging from Kevin Carmony, the CEO of Linspire, to Richard Stallman… and a whole lot of people in between), attended some cool conferences (including Linux Fest Northwest and the first/only Ubuntu Live conference) and generally had a lot of fun.

If you’ve read this far — holy cow man.  You really like the Linux Action Show.

[Though any other platform can follow this as well so long as you install Python/GTK, which I have a tutorial for.]

The PDF file for this tutorial clocks in at a whopping 2 pages.

With a big font.  And screenshots.

In other words: Building a text editor in Illumination is nice and easy.

You can also grab the sample project to help you get started.

Worth noting: Illumination Software Creator Free Edition allows you to use the Python/GTK and HTML5 targets… so you can follow along with this tutorial even if you haven’t plopped down the couple of bucks for the Deluxe Edition (which gives you iOS, Android and Flash target options).

You can also check out some of the past tutorials, which cover some cool stuff (including building a “Choose Your Own Adventure Game”, a Tic-Tac-Toe board, an anonymous mobile web browser and a bunch of other details).  Amazing what you can do without ever writing any “code”, eh?

The changes are mostly to have more specific and clear language — and clear language is most excellent.

If no major changes are needed to this revision, I will be applying this to all of my works (including my games, software and comics) very shorty.

The Greater Lunduke License
Version 0.2, May 2012

Copyright 2012 (C) Bryan Lunduke <bryan@lunduke.com>

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim or modified copies of this license document, and changing it is allowed as long as the name is changed.

PREAMBLE

The “Greater Lunduke License” is inspired, in part, by the wisdom of the Two Great Ones, Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan.  Namely that we should all “be excellent to each other”, that being “bogus” is “most non-triumphant” and that all dudes should “party on”.

This license applies those concepts in such a way that it is applicable to all forms of content, including, but not limited to: software, books, music, movies and various works of art.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. Be Excellent To Each Other.

The consumer of this work is granted the right to utilize this work in conjunction with any mechanism that is capable of utilizing it, in the form supplied by the content creator, without limitation as to specific hardware or software.

The consumer of this work may make copies of this work (physical or otherwise) for backup purposes.

The consumer of this work may lend this work to another individual provided that the following two conditions are met:  1) the lender no longer utilizes or possesses the work and 2) the work is not presently lent to another individual.

The consumer of this work may sell this work to another individual provided that the following two conditions are met:  1) the seller no longer utilizes or possesses the work and 2) once the work is sold, the seller relinquishes all rights and copies of the work to the buyer.

2. Don’t Be Bogus.

The consumer of this work shall not redistribute modified, or unmodified, copies of this work without explicit written permission from the creator of this work.  The only exceptions allowed to this rule are the provisions outlined in section 1 of this license

The consumer of this work shall not hold the creator of this work liable for anything the consumer does, or does not, do, or the results of utilizing this work.

3. Party On, Dudes!

The creator of this work provides the work in a form that contains no mechanism to disable the utilization of the work after a specific date, period of time or number of uses.

If additional works, which are created and wholly owned by the work’s creator, are required to utilize this work, those additional works must also be made available to the consumer so long the following conditions are met:  1) doing so is possible and 2) doing so does not cause harm to the creator of the work.

This Beta release is available for Linux, MacOS and Windows from right over here.

Here’s what’s new in Beta 2:

• The Windows version is now available!
• You can now assign graphics to your blocks.
• Two new events are now available : “Mouse Click” and “Mouse Moved Over”.
• Improvements to the rendering (should fix all of the issues reported with drawing).
• A bunch of minor tweaks and bug fixes.

As a reminder: Those of you that purchase BLABA now, while it is still in “Beta”, get a $10 discount (only $25 — after Beta the price goes up to $35).  One license allows you to run BLABA on Linux, Windows and Mac and allows you to build, and release, as many games as you like with no restrictions.

Here’s a quick heads-up on what to expect in the next two Beta releases:

• The “Export” option will be enabled for paying customers to export stand-alone versions of your game for Windows, Mac and Linux.
• Sounds (including background music and sound playing actions).
• Support for games with multiple scenes.
• Text display.
• Global Data Storage (Score, Inventory, etc.).

As always, feel free to report any issues (or make feature requests) over on the official forum.

This is the first Beta release of a completely visual video game creation system.

There’s a lot going on here, so I’m just going to give you a bulleted list of stuff you should know

• Beta 1 runs on Linux and MacOS X.  Windows version is coming in Beta 2.
• “Export” option – which builds standalone executables for Linux, Windows and MacOS X (and a surprise platform that I will unveil in the coming weeks) is disabled in Beta 1.  For now you can simply click “Run” to test your games inside BLABA itself.
• BLABA blocks can either have a single color, or use a custom graphic that you provide.  Due to a bug in the OS X version, I have disabled the custom graphic option for Beta 1.  This will re-appear in Beta 2.
• BLABA Beta 1 ships with two project files.  One is a very simple space invaders style game that took me roughly 12 seconds to put together [because BLABA is awesome].  The other is a simple demonstration of a little world you can walk around.  (WASD are the movement keys I have assigned, but you can change this by clicking “Edit” and adjusting the properties there.)
• BLABA will sell for $35.  During Beta you can pick it up for $25.

Those of you familiar with Illumination Software Creator will notice some similarities in the BLABA edit view (aka the “Awesome Block Editor”).  But, since there are no tutorials accompanying Beta 1 [Tutorials are on the way], I wanted to point a few things out to help you get started:

1. “Events” are things that occur.  ”Actions” are things you tell your blocks to do.  Simply drag and drop from either list to the central area to create a new instance.
2. Each block has its own logic and is completely independent of the other blocks.
3. To modify the properties of an Event or Action, simply click on the property within the center view, and select the new value from the pop-up list.
4. Each Event can only call one Action.  But you can have as many Events as you like.

There are bugs.  You will find them.  I have a list of known bugs here that I am working through.  But I wanted to get this in your hands to get feedback now while there’s still a good chance for your input to make a substantial impact in the 1.0 release.  If you have feedback, the forum is the place.

Here’s a quick list of things that are coming in Beta 2 so you know what to expect (other than bug fixes and the like):

• Windows version.
• Export your game to standalone executable for Linux, Windows and Mac (for those who register).
• Custom Graphics per Block.
• Some new Events and Actions (including the ability to display messages to the player and score handling).

So I wanted to take just a moment to (attempt to) clearly state my position in a way that leaves no room for misunderstanding.

The core of my position is this:

As a general rule of thumb, the specifics of a license of a thing is less important than the thing itself.

Don’t get me wrong on that.  I am not, by any means, saying that good licensing is unimportant.  Quite the opposite — I’ve even deemed it important enough to work on my own license that focuses on practical, real-world rights for the consumer.

But, and here’s the thing, if needing to use a specific license gets in the way of creating something new and worthwhile… then it’s time to simply use a different license.

Example: I just saw “The Avengers” the other day.  It was an amazing movie that made me grin ear-to-ear.  Do I care that it is not licensed under a “Free” license like the GPL?  Nope.  Not for a second.  And if being GPL licensed would have caused them to be unable to make this movie… then the GPL would have been a tremendous mistake for them to use.

I also am a big fan of Pac-Man.  If releasing Pac-Man as GPL would have been a hindrance in releasing and paying for its development… then the GPL would have hurt the world.  In my opinion, that hurt would have run pretty deep.  [I really, really like Pac-Man.]

Or how about if Harry Belafonte would only release “Jump The Line” if he could release it as GPL — and, consequently, couldn’t afford to record it?  Sadness, I tell you.  Sadness.  (And not just for Senora, who would no longer be shaking her body line.)

There are cases where a “Free” or “Copyleft” license such as the GPL makes sense.  But common sense needs to be used.  One size does not fit all in the licensing world.

There’s the distinction.  I am, in no way, against the idea of “Free” licensing.  But I am more of an advocate of creating amazing things.

[Side Note: A license governs the usage and application of a "thing" in a completely optional way.  If someone doesn't want to utilize something (a book, a movie, a game, etc.) then they don't have to and, therefor, don't need to agree to the license.  It's simple.  This is what the dictionary likes to call "freedom".]

[Side Note 2: For those wondering, I am still enforcing this post's rules in the comments here, because I am still the Dictator.]

With so many changes happening to all three platforms, it seems like it’s time to do it again.

We’ll be looking at the latest public releases of each system: Windows 8 [which is quickly moving towards a final release and has been available in preview form for a few months], MacOS X 10.7 and Ubuntu 12.04.

I’m going to break this down into a bunch of categories (“Look and Feel”, “Usability”, etc.) and declare a winner in each.  At the end, we’ll tally up the score and declare a winner.  Here we go!

Look and Feel

How something looks is important.  Microsoft knows this.  Apple knows this.  Canonical knows this.

And they’ve been spending a lot of time improving (and even completely overhauling) the look and feel of their platforms to look cooler and sleeker than the other guys.

If there was ever a time that these major computing platforms looked alike… that time is long gone.

MacOS X 10.7 looks like a cross between the previous versions of MacOS X and iOS.  Apple seems to be moving towards a single “look and feel” across all of its platforms… but it’s not quite there yet.  The look of OS X 10.7 is a bit disjointed.  Nothing looks bad really, just inconsistent.

The new “Launchpad” way of launching apps feels a bit weird on a desktop computer.  And the MacOS X “Mission Control” (which is a strange combination of virtual desktops and window organization) just looks… cluttered.  And unfinished.

Windows 8, on the other hand, doesn’t look cluttered.  It looks like…

A bunch of squares.

The look is simple and easy to look at… which is great.  But it also shows relatively little information on screen at once.

And it doesn’t look like a desktop computer.  It seems both Microsoft and Apple really want their desktop OS to be a Tablet/Phone OS first and fore-most.

In this regard, you could say, Ubuntu is no different.  With the new “Unity” user interface, Ubuntu seems to be going for the “Desktop/Tablet/TV/Phone” hybrid look and feel as well.

Except, in the case of Ubuntu, this general look and feel still looks and feels like a real desktop operating system.

The colors are soothing.  The lines are smooth and sleek.  The usage of transparency is just right.

And things feel tied together and complete.

It looks and feels like it is supposed to look and feel.  It looks “finished”.  MacOS X 10.7 and Windows 8 look more “half way to where they want to be”.

Look and Feel Winner: Ubuntu 12.04

This is a pretty subjective category.  And MacOS X 10.7 and Windows 8 both have some pretty strong points in this regard.  But I think a good argument could be made that only Ubuntu looks how it is supposed to look.

Available Software

The last time I did this sort of a round-up, I included categories for “Photo Editing”, “Video Editing”, “Office Work” and “Music” to compare the software included with each OS “out of the box”.

Not this time.

Because, let’s be honest, there’s a lot of software out there.  And you’re not going to just live with the apps that ship with your OS.

On Ubuntu you’ve got the Ubuntu Software Center, which has an astounding collection of free (and paid) software.  The vast majority of needs are covered here.

On MacOS X you’ve got the Mac App Store.  Again.  The vast majority of needs are covered here.

On Windows 8 you’ve got the Windows 8 Marketplace.  Which… right now is pretty doggone empty.  And, with its focus on “Metro only” apps, you’re not likely to see the massive catalogue of existing Windows software available via this store any time soon.

But, Windows 8 can still run those eleventy-billion applications out there.  Which is hard to ignore.

Ubuntu users can run a good number of Windows applications as well (via Wine).  Mac OS X… is pretty much left out here (it is possible to use Wine to run Windows apps on MacOS X… but it’s a pain to install and, let’s be honest, just doesn’t work as well as it does under Linux).

Available Software Winner: Windows 8

This one is a no-brainer.  I’d say Ubuntu is a close runner-up here, but the winner is definitely Windows 8 due to the sheer quantity of software available.

Gaming

This is also an easy one.  If you want Triple-A, big budget games… you need Windows.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story.  In the last two years, Linux has gone from “massive under-dog” to “on par with MacOS X” in terms of new, native, commercial games built specifically for the platform.

The Humble Indie Bundle, and a number of indie game developers (*cough* *cough*), have shown that Linux is becoming a major force in gaming — often becoming more profitable for the game developers than MacOS X (as shown by many of the Humble Bundle results).

Gaming Winner: Windows 8

Sure, you can run many Windows games on Linux.  But, if you want the premium gaming experience… you just can’t beat Windows right now.

Customizability

Do you want every pen, lamp and notepad on your desk to be exactly the same as everyone else’s?  No.  Of course not.

You want to make your workspace your own.  To customize it to both function how you need… and to look how you want.  So how do the three big operating systems do in this regard?

MacOS X stinks at customizability.  See how it looks when you first boot it up?  That’s how it looks.  Sure, you can change your background picture or choose from one of three options of where to stick the dock… but that’s where the fun ends.

Windows 8 is a bit better.  Things can be re-organized a bit more, color scheme’s can be applied here and there.  Though it’s still a pretty “buttoned down” experience.

Ubuntu, on the other hand, just plain rocks.  Don’t like the default “Unity” user experience?  Install KDE.  Or Gnome Shell.  Or XFCE.  Or XMonad.  Or any of the countless other desktop environments that are available — and often via a single click install in the Ubuntu Software Center.

Customizability Winner: Ubuntu 12.04

No contest here at all.  Even the most die-hard Mac or Windows fan will readily admit that Ubuntu (and Linux in general) is the kind of customization.

Performance

You can find benchmarks all over the inter-tubes about how one system is faster than another.

But, let’s be honest, all three play games just fine.  All three play back high definition video just fine.  And all three boot up plenty fast (do you really re-boot enough times per day to care if one system boots 1 second faster than another?).

So, what really is important, is how fast a particular system feels.  How much time do you spend waiting… or feeling like you are waiting.  How responsive is the user interface to your mouse clicks.  These are little things… but this matters a great deal.  A sluggish feeling system is going to drive you bonkers in a hurry.

So, to keep things at least semi-fair: I tripple booted the same machine [an Apple MacBook Pro 2.7 GHz core i7 with 8gigs of RAM] with all three systems — and made sure the proper drivers were all installed.  After using each for extended periods, here’s my take-away.

MacOS X 10.7 is a bit pokey.  The spinning beach ball of death appeared often enough to make me want to stab my screen with whatever sharp instrument was in arms reach.  Apps seemed to take longer than they should to launch on, what is basically “the best you can get” in terms of a Mac laptop.  File transfers to my local server were also slower than I experienced on the other systems.

Windows 8 was considerably snappier.  Things happened quickly.  Responsive.  Smooth.  The system almost never left me waiting around.

Ubuntu 12.04 was in the exact same boat.  Fast.  Peppy.

Performance Winner: Windows 8 and Ubuntu 12.04 (A Tie)

Sorry MacOS X.  You’re just too sluggish compared to the other guys.

Virtualization

Windows, MacOS X and Ubuntu all have great virtualization software available for running the other platforms (including VirtualBox and VMWare).

So what are we talking about here?

Well.  Regardless of which system you choose, you can install virtualization software and be up and running with a fast, well supported installation of Windows 8 or Ubuntu 12.04 in no time.

This is incredibly handy for anyone who needs “sandboxed” environments to work in, or needs the ability to quickly create and restore backups of working environments.  (Example: Software Developers who want a clean system for building and testing their apps, Artists who want a specifically configured system with the right software/fonts/assets for a specific project, etc.)

But what about MacOS X?  Well, you’re plum out of luck.  In this regard Apple seems to really have it out for their customers.  They’ve purposefully made it hard (read: darn near impossible… and certainly against their EULA’s on 95% of all hardware out there) to run MacOS X in a virtualized environment.

Virtualization Winner: Ubuntu 12.04

I have to give a slight edge to Ubuntu in this.  While Windows is a champ under virtualization, you still need to worry about having enough software licenses on hand.  With Ubuntu, you can spin up as many Ubuntu-based virtual machines as your rig can handle.  Free of charge.

The Final Verdict

Let’s tally the scores!

Windows 8 : 3

Ubuntu 12.04 : 4

MacOS X 10.7 : 0

To be completely fair, all three of these platforms are completely usable and just fine for most people.  The fact that MacOS X didn’t win a single category doesn’t mean it sucks.  It just means the other platforms outperformed it.

The reality is, which system you decide to use is, likely, based on which applications you need for your job or hobby.  [Me, personally, I'm living under Ubuntu 12.04 with multiple virtual machines running Windows (and other Linux distros).  And boot a MacBook into MacOS X 10.7 when I need to test things out there.]

All of that said, when these three versions of these systems are put head to head… I have to declare the winner to be fairly obvious (though only by a hair) :

Ubuntu 12.04 wins.

First up: Linux Tycoon for Android is set to debut very, very shorty.

The game itself is complete and is an awesome fit to be playing on a mobile device.  Right now the only hold-up is testing on a variety of devices and resolutions.  This particular sticking point has been more of problem than I anticipated, but is slowly getting ironed out.

Once those quirks are works out, I will announce the availability for Android here.

Next: Linux Tycoon for iOS is ready to be submitted to the iOS app store.  Then we’re just waiting for Apple to do their thing.

Linux Tycoon Online [the MMOLDBSG] — The server has been running, without incident, for about a week now with a small crew of players (that have been logged in nearly 24×7 it seems) — This is very good news.  So I’ll be opening this up to the rest of the people that got in to the Limited Beta shortly.  And, if all goes well, everyone else can try to destroy my server again right afterwards.

In the coming days I’ll be releasing Linux Tycoon 1.1 — which adds some new features, fixes some little issues… and generally is awesome.

That’s about it for now.  I’ll post here as various bits and pieces are ready to be played.