Test Drive: Linux Mint 16 “Petra” on the EEEPC

With the end of November the latest Linux Mint distribution release has arrived. Even I haven't got Mint installed on any of my computers anymore I decided to give it a look to see how it behaves, at least running live, on the EEEPC. I so downloaded Mint 16, the version shipped with Cinnamon 2.0, and prepared a USB disk using Unetbootin.

First impressions

The system started with reasonable speed and booted into the (good) old fashioned view of the Cinnamon desktop.

Mint 16 behaves smoothly enough and is responsive even on the EEEPC 900 limited resources.

Fun programming: Andengine

Here I am back on the “Fun programming” theme: finding ways to have some fun while programming. A way I use to detach myself from daily routine while seeking for new techniques or languages to learn. While visiting back this blog I noticed many articles about Andengine: a promising 2D games engine for Android developed by Nicolas Gramich.

Setting-Up Andengine

The starting point so set-up a working Andengine environment is to have a working Android development set-up based on Eclipse and Android SDK. I had prepared it before during my previous Android experiments. Also is needed a Git plug-in for Eclipse, like EGit.

Andengine is available as a Android library project it can be easily downloaded from its GitHub page by selecting Eclipse import wizard (Choosing the “File → Import …” menu first then the “Git → Projects from Git” option).

After copying the project URI in the wizard request …

The project branch must be selected, I did choose the GLES2 branch the latest and the one currently under develop.

Blog-Birthday Five

One more year of, slow but steady, blogging has passed. Let me just say thanks to all my readers and visitors.

Upgraded to Ubuntu 13.10 “Saucy Salamander”

This is just a short post to report about the upgrade of my two computers to the latest Ubuntu release. I upgraded just after the distribution release (Saturday 19) but various problems kept me from writing about it.

Test Drive: Ubuntu-Gnome 13.10 “Saucy Salamander” (Beta 2) on the EEEPC

After testing the latest Ubuntu release I proceeded my test session with Ubuntu-gnome edition. Ubuntu-gnome is the distribution I have installed on the (actually) oldest computer I have, the EEEPC 900. Trying a distribution without installing becomes so the “go/no-go” condition for when the official upgrade will be released. Even if Linux distributions are generally benevolent with older hardware you'll never be sure if and how your system will work without testing.

First impressions

As usual, I prepared a bootable USB disk with the Ubuntu's tool and a booted my EEEPC from it.

Ubuntu-gnome is provided with Gnome-Shell 3.8. The interface is quite similar with the version shipped with previous Ubuntu release.