Free/Open Source AI Projects

• How open-source computing is making AI affordable

  computing and the cloud have brought many previously unaffordable IT options to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The same is becoming true of artificial intelligence (AI), although it brings new challenges to all sizes of company. Even though many of the commercial, high-profile products are aimed at Global 2000 companies, and others marketed at SMEs are perhaps heavier on hype than intelligence, the smarter smaller organisations can learn, build on and use AI techniques right now, with those same open-source and .

• Free Ebook Offers Insight on 16 Open Source AI Projects

  Open source AI is flourishing, with companies developing and open sourcing new AI and machine learning tools at a rapid pace. To help you keep up with the changes and stay informed about the latest projects, The Linux Foundation has published a free ebook by Ibrahim Haddad examining popular open source AI projects, including Acumos AI, Apache Spark, Caffe, TensorFlow, and others. “It is increasingly common to see AI as open source projects,” Haddad said. And, “as with any technology where talent premiums are high, the network effects of open source are very strong.”

Games Leftovers

• Cart Crawlers is a TF2-themed rogue-lite shooter that was made in Godot and it's free

  What do you get when you take the fast-paced shooter gameplay from the likes of Nuclear Throne and throw in the cart-pushing mechanics from TF2? Cart Crawlers answers that.

• In the multiplayer strategy game Epicinium, your impact on the environment matters

  Strategy games are often about destroy or be destroyed, but what happens after that? Do you want to win only to control ash and rubble? Epicinium [Official Site] is a multiplayer strategy game where you need to be careful with your battles.

• Open-world, vehicle sandbox adventure 'TerraTech' updated with online multiplayer & better performance

  Fancy building a vehicle and exploring a hostile alien landscape? Or perhaps you're more into building a vehicle and battling others online. TerraTech [Humble Store, Steam] now allows you to do both.

• Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia to arrive on Linux in June, after the Mac release

  Feral Interactive [Official Site] have now confirmed that Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia will arrive on Linux next month, with the Mac release this month. While the game released for Windows at the start of this month.

• Thrones of Britannia Being Released For Linux Next Month

  Back in February the folks at Feral Interactive announced Thrones of Britannia would be coming to Linux, the latest in the Total War game franchise. They have confirmed today the Linux port will be out in June. Feral is releasing A Total War Saga: THRONES OF BRITANNIA for macOS this week (Thursday, 24 May) while this morning they confirmed via Twitter that the Linux port is on track for releasing in June.

• Paradox haven't decided if their new game Imperator: Rome will be on Linux (update: it will!)

  Announced at the recent PDXCON, Imperator: Rome is a brand new title developed by Paradox Development Studio and publisher Paradox Interactive. Sadly, it seems they haven't made a decision on Linux support just yet.

• Stellaris: Distant Stars Story Pack and the 2.1 patch are now out

  While I absolutely adore Stellaris, there was always one point in particular I wasn't happy with. How it ended up feeling a little empty at times and how you would see some of the same events quite often. Thanks to the Stellaris: Distant Stars Story Pack and the latest patch, this has improved dramatically.

• I hope you like Anime & Manga styled games, as GOG just added 10 with Linux support

  You like Visual Novels, Anime and Manga right? Good, as GOG just added 10 that support Linux to their store.

• I Hate Running Backwards, a never-ending shoot 'em up will be on Linux soon

  I Hate Running Backwards [Steam], a never-ending shooter developed by Binx Interactive with help from Croteam Incubator and publisher Devolver Digital should be on Linux soon.

• Rocket League is going to the beach with a new arena on May 29th

  Salty Shores is the name of the new arena heading to Rocket League with the update due on May 29th and it looks lovely. This isn't some seasonal special either, it's a new permanent addition to the online playlists.

• Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story, a squad-based shoot 'em up will have Linux support

  Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story from developer Coldwild Games is a squad-based shoot 'em up bullet hell that will offer full Linux support, releasing in August.

• Gyre: Nova State is a steampunk-inspired open world RPG promising Linux support on Kickstarter

• Like it hot? The FPS Shotgun Farmers has added the Chillithrower weapon and it's great

  I do wish Shotgun Farmers was more popular, as it's one of the most unique shooters around and this update adds a fun new weapon.

• The Humble Store Spring Sale ends tomorrow, here's some last Linux picks

  With the Humble Store Spring Sale ending tomorrow, here's a reminder and a look at some more choice picks for Linux gamers.

• Phoenix Point is a dark, difficult and exciting strategy game that's very XCOM

  Now that Phoenix Point [Official Site] from Snapshot Games has a Linux version out, I've managed to put some time into it and as a long time XCOM fan I'm very impressed. Obviously a full review can't be done right now, since it's nowhere near finished so that will be reserved for the final release. However, I do have a few thoughts to share on the general experience.

• PlayStation VR HMD Working On Linux With SteamVR/Dota 2 Thanks To OpenHMD

  Thanks to the work done by Christoph Haag on a SteamVR plug-in for OpenHMD, the PlayStation VR (PSVR) head-mounted display is working out for handling Steam VR Linux games like Dota 2. OpenHMD as a refresher is the free/open-source API for head-mounted displays that supports all major operating systems including FreeBSD, Linux, Windows, macOS, and Android. OpenHMD in turn exposes bindings for popular languages from Java to Rust.

• There's hints of the 'SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics' pack coming to Linux

  As seen here on SteamDB for a little more detail, Linux and Mac have both been added behind the scenes for Steam packaging. It's a good indicator someone is working on it, but of course it doesn't mean it's confirmed yet.

DragonFlyBSD 5.2.1 Released

While DragonFlyBSD 5.3/5.4 is exciting on the performance front for those making use of the stable DragonFly operating system releases, DragonFlyBSD 5.2.1 is available this week. This is the first and perhaps only point release over DragonFly 5.2.0 that premiered back in April. DragonFlyBSD 5.2 brought stabilization work for HAMMER2 to make it ready for more users, Spectre and Meltdown kernel work, and months worth of other important updates.

Do European Governments Publish Open Source Software?

From time to time I come across news articles about Governmental bodies in Europe adopting the use of Open Source Software. This seems to be a slowly increasing trend. But if European Governments make software for themselves, or are having it made for them, do they publish that software as Open Source? This was a question that came up in a meeting at one of my clients. To find an answer, I asked my friends at the FSFE NL-team and did a Quick Scan. Here are the results. The short answer: Yes, they do! The longer answer: read on.