This is the last article in a four-part series on the current state
of 3D printing. In the first part, I gave an overall introduction to
differences in 3D printing since I wrote my original articles on 3D printing
three years ago. The second piece focused on advances in 3D printing
hardware, and the third column covered 3D printing software.
Although some companies have embraced the world of free software with open
arms, there are many who haven't. NVIDIA is one name that comes to mind.
Its reputation in the Linux world is far from stellar, but maybe its
recent actions will help mend some bridges.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation continues to push the limits of single-board
computing. This month, it has added experimental OpenGL support to
its Raspbian OS.
For many of us, our introduction to computing is being placed in front
of a machine where the only challenge is figuring out the Windows user
experience paradigm. Getting started with Linux, on the other hand,
requires a bit more effort, a fair amount of trial and error, and perhaps
some colorful language along the way.
Recently, I wrote about how Docker is investing in Unikernels to reduce the
size of its containers, but there is more than one way to skin a cat.
Unikernels are a hot new technology, but many developers prefer stability
and maturity over "new and shiny". And, that's where Alpine Linux comes in.
I recently had a problem trying to install the NVIDIA driver for
my machine. It seemed the latest driver had stopped supporting my graphics
card, and after updating my kernel, I was out of a driver. The question,
obviously, was "which card did I have?" But, I didn't
remember.
I love video game emulation. My favorite games were produced in the 1980s
and 1990s, so if I want to play them, I almost always have to emulate the
old systems. There is usually a legal concern about ROM files for games,
even if you own the original cartridges, so I'm not going to tell you
where to find ROMs to download or anything like that.
The ever-popular VLC turned 15 a few days ago--that's 15 years since the
project was GPLed and released to the world. If we were pedants, we might
point out that the project actually came into existence in 1996, but that
was a different lifetime.
Docker's recent acquisition of Unikernel Systems has sent pulses racing in
the microservice world. At the same time, many people have
no clue what to make of it, so here's a quick explanation of why this
move is a good thing.
I'm apparently in a silly-game mood this month, because I stumbled
across an open-source project I couldn't keep all to myself: Snk. If
you remember the classic game of snake, Snk is the same concept,
but smaller, harder and with music.