Free beginners software for linux

Baghira is a native style for QT/KDE.

The name refers to the Panther of Kiplings famous Jungle Book (German spelling)

You will probably rather know the Disney version...

Basically its a perky imitation of Apples OSX look.

Installation:

tar -xjf baghira.tar.bz2
cd baghira/baghira
./configure --prefix=`kde-config --prefix` --disable-debug [--enable-final]
(!!!BEGINNERS: the direction of the accents is _important_ (top-left to bottom-right), the rectangular brackets mean [this is optional] - dont type them!!!)
make
and finally as root:
make install

JGachine project is a Java game machine/engine/browser.
JGachine is a networked game engine for 2D multi-player (networked) games.
It is written in Java and C++.
The games themselves are written in pure Java and can be loaded via the network.
Main features:
- easy game programing for beginners
- a game machine/engine/browser
- one client for multiple games
- you only write the game server (though the server may send bytecode to the client)
- secure client (though executing bytecode from the server
- writing multiplayer networked games within 2 hours
- portable
- try to allow output device independent games
- device independent coordinates
- help with different/changing aspect ratios

Qt version of the classic boardgame "checkers". KCheckers game is also known as "draughts".
KCheckers is distributed under the GNU GPL.
Main features:
- Pure Qt.
- Built-in checkers engine.
- English and Russian rules of play.
- Beginner, Novice, Average, Good, Expert and Master levels of skill.
- Green, Marble and Wooden themes of the board.
- Portable Draughts Notation database format support.
- PDN preview widget.
- Saving, loading and restarting of game.
- Auto change of the mens color.
- Undo of last move.
- Auto saving of settings.
- Optional numeration of the board.
- Game information box.
- The on-line description of the plays rules.
- Threads support.
- Internationalization support (now German and Russian).
- Network capabilities.
Rules of play:
- In the beginning of game you have 12 checkers (men).
- The men move forward only. The men can capture:
- by jumping forward only (english rules);
- by jumping forward or backward (russian rules).
- A man which reaches the far side of the board becomes a king.
- The kings move forward or backward:
- to one square only (english rules);
- to any number of squares (russian rules).
- The kings capture by jumping forward or backward.
- Whenever a player is able to make a capture he must do so.
Enhancements:
- A bug that occurred in SuSE 9.3 when compiling with GCC 3.3 was fixed.
- Unused code was removed.

Eznet makes setting up PPP for Linux easy. Just enter the name of your ISP, a phone number to dial, the login name, the password and the TTY and eznet takes care of the rest.

Setting up PPP under Linux can be intimidating, especially for newbies. Between chat scripts and a zillion options to pppd, setting up PPP can be a hassle for experienced users. Its a wonder beginners are able to do it at all.

``eznet is a new program designed to make it much easier to get PPP running under Linux. Basically all you have to do is supply a name for your ISP, a login name, password and phone number and eznet will do the rest. There are not configuration files to edit, no chat scripts to design and no need to figure out what a "chap-secret" is. Assuming you have pppd and eznet correctly installed (which should happen automatically from your CD-ROM, right?) the following command is all it takes to set up PPP:

eznet add service=NAME user=ABC password=XYZ phone=5551234

The setup command has to be entered as root. But after the setup is done, any user can bring up the PPP connection by simply typing:

eznet up NAME

If everything works right, you should have a PPP connection in 30 seconds or so. The ``eznet up command will not return until either the connection has been established, or the connection attempt fails. The command will return a non-zero result code if the connection attempt fails, making is suitable for use within shell-scripts. ``eznet up prints a status message just before it returns so that interactive users can also see what happened.

The connection established by eznet will automatically go down after 5 minutes of inactivity. Or you can bring it down manually by typing:

eznet down NAME

To see the current status of a connection, type:

eznet status

Eznet also supports demand dialing. If you have Eric Schenks ``Diald package installed, you can start it up by typing:

eznet dialdon NAME

And turn diald back off using:

eznet dialdoff NAME

If you prefer to use the request-route feature of kerneld, then just write the following script into the file ``/sbin/request-route:

#!/bin/sh
eznet up NAME

I prefer to use diald, since it seems to work better and because kerneld will not be supported in the 2.2.X kernels. But either method works.

Hextris is Tetris with stones made of hexagons.
It takes some time to get used to the hexagon board but its worth it.
Main features:
- severity levels for beginner, medium and expert
- choosable speed at game start
- global highscore list
- choosable hexagon size
- Java/multiplatform implementation
- GPL license
The aim of the game is to score as high as possible. So here are some score hints:
- Moving down stones manually scores more than waiting until stones move automatically.
- Playing in higher levels scores more than playing in lower levels. If you start in a higher level then you stay there as long as it takes to reach that level from level 1. So if you feel comfortable in say level 3 then its better to start in level 3.
- The score for removed lines depends on the number of simultaneously removed lines and grows quarely, i.e. filling 2 lines with one stones brings 2 times the score of filling 2 lines seperately. 3 times for 3 lines etc.
The actual number of score points can be found in the help display

OPEN BEXI HTML Builder is a WYSIWYG HTML editor which allows you to create Web pages and generate HTML code from your browser without any HTML knowledge.

It lets you create, update, and remove HTML components. OPEN BEXI HTML Builder is suitable for beginners and experts.

Eclipse is a set of C++ classes designed to give beginner developers a head start in developing their first games as well as more experienced developers who dont want to have to write code for mundane tasks like fonts, sprites, and image loading.

Eclipse 2D Game Engine provides bitmap fonts, window management, audio capabilities, image loading, error logging, and zip file support.

libease is a shared library containing easing algorithms that can be used for graphical effects or mathematical calculations.
libeases main goal of is to try and create a centralised library for easing effects within the window manager environment.
Installation:
Beginners:
This is intended for those not fluent with linux
Please type the following at root:
sh ./install.sh
Experts:
Setting prefix: There is currently only the Edit the Makefile method. (sorry, getting to it)
then type the following:
make clean
make
make install
make test
Enhancements:
- Five new easing methods were introduced.
- We are currently looking for programmers and mathematicians to help develop better easing methods and to redesign the code construct used to access the methods.