Open Recall: GIMP Magazine, OLPC OS, Red Eclipse, 0 A.D.

Open Recall is a space on The H for those things that are too small to package as news but are worth the linkage. This edition looks at the first edition of the free GIMP Magazine, a major update to the OS that powers OLPC XO laptops, Kenya's government migrating to open source, and new versions of the Red Ecipse and 0 A.D. games.

• GIMP Magazine - The first issue of GIMP Magazine is now available. The digital publication includes various tutorials, and tips and tricks on the open source GIMP graphics editor, as well as an interview with photographer Ian Muttoo. The inaugural issue can be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF, and is made available for free under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) licence. The goal of the magazine is to promote GIMP and other related open source software.

• OLPC OS 12.1.0 - A new version of the operating system that powers the OLPC XO-1, XO-1.5 and XO-1.75 laptops from the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative has been released. This major update is based on Fedora 17, includes GNOME 3.4 and upgrades the included Sugar Learning Platform to version 0.96. Overall, its developers say that they focused on improving the XO-1.75 user experience, while continuing to support the XO-1.5 and XO-1. A full list of changes and new features can be found in the 12.1.0 release notes.

• FOSS in Kenya - The government in the East African country of Kenya is reportedly shifting away from copyrighted software in favour of open source software such as Linux, Apache and MySQL. According to Katherine Getao, e-Government ICT Secretary, it currently costs a government agency approximately 237 million Kenyan shillings (about £1.76 million) per year to purchase and upgrade copyrighted software. The Kenyan directorate of e-Government says that it initially expects to reduce costs by 20%, but hopes that figure will improve to 80% within three years after the change.
  

Red Eclipse includes a number of maps which can be customised using the built-in editor
Source: Red Eclipse

• Red Eclipse 1.3 Galactic Edition - A new version of the open source Red Eclipse first-person shooter (FPS) game has been released with updates to the included weapons, several new maps, and new game types. These new game modes include coop, where humans fight advanced bots, and king-of-the-hill in which users fight to control and defend just one flag. Its developers say that the update also improves overall stability and introduces a new "impulse vaulting" option to the impulse/parkour system. A full change log is provided in the release announcement. Red Eclipse 1.3.1 is powered by the Cube 2 game engine and can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux/BSD from the project's SourceForge page.

• 0 A.D. Alpha 11 Kronos - The latest alpha of 0 A.D., an open source real-time strategy (RTS) game from Wildfire Games, replaces the generic Celtic faction with Britons and Gauls. The first of these has chariots, long-swordsmen and powerful melee soldiers, while the Gauls have heavy swordsmen and heavy cavalry. The new alpha also improves the game's realism by implementing various post-processing effects and mapping enhancements that use OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL); however, these are currently disabled by default as they are considered to be experimental. Details enabling the new graphics options as well other changes in the alpha can be found in the forum release announcement. Code-named "Kronos" after the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, 0 A.D. Alpha 11 supports Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

(crve)