Specifications
36 | august 2008 www.linuxjournal.com
NEW PRODUCTS
Linux Game Publishing and Ascaron
Entertainment’s Sacred Gold
Our team is truly tickled at how many high-end Linux-based games are
now at our disposal. One of the latest is Ascaron Entertainment’s Sacred
Gold, which includes Sacred and its expansion, Sacred: Underworld.
Linux Game Publishing is responsible for the Linux port. The companies
plug Sacred as an action-filled role-playing game that “combines an
exciting story line with great gameplay”. In addition to porting a broad
range of Linux-based games, Linux Game Publishing also supports
open-source development by making available a number of libraries
it has developed over time for its games.
www.linuxgamepublishing.com, eng.sacred-game.com
Jedox AG’s Palo
Though you likely never will experience a GPL’d Microsoft Excel, you can use the open-source Palo 2.5
from Jedox to serve up Excel spreadsheets. Palo is a multi-user, high-performance data server application
that allows workers enterprise-wide to access, change and collaborate on multiple spreadsheets in real
time. Improvements in the new version 2.5 include a newly optimized MOLAP (Multidimensional OnLine
Analytical Processing) engine, intelligent local data cache, faster multidimensional data processing, an
enhanced multidimensional formula editor and advanced query capability. The workstation-resident data
cache uses an “intelligent” technology to reduce calls to the central server. Palo is available in free,
enterprise and government editions.
www.jedox.com
SugarCRM’s Sugar Data Center Edition
Diversifying the open-source CRM space is SugarCRM with its new Sugar
Data Center Edition. The new product line offers a complete set of sys-
tems management, provisioning and monitoring tools that enable service
providers and large organizations to deploy and manage multiple
instances—distinct versions of SugarCRM—from a centralized manage-
ment console. In the absence of these capabilities, says SugarCRM, large
enterprises are forced to eliminate multiple instances in a subdivision of
their organization and make serious trade-off decisions regarding func-
tionality and customizations/localizations for the sake of centralized and
Web-services-based applications. With the new Sugar Data Center
Edition, organizations “can get creative and deep with customizations
and locations at no expense to one department or end user”.
www.sugarcrm.com
Tony Mullen’s Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!
(Sybex)
To our squeals of delight, Sybex is tearing off its Clark Kent-like demeanor to present Tony Mullen’s
Bounce, Tumble, and Splash! Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D. Blender is an immensely
popular, multiplatform, open-source, 3-D content-creation suite. Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!, says
Sybex, is the only title to offer “step-by-step instructions on Blender’s more complex features while show-
casing the unique objects and characters that can be created in Blender”. Topics include soft bodies and
cloth, the Blender particle system, static particles and hair, fluids, bullet physics, the Blender Game Engine
and plant simulation. The book’s tone is “friendly but professional” and focuses on full-color examples
with clear, in-depth explanations of how each step was taken and why each choice was made.
www.sybex.com