Matt writes "Saw over at Ars Technica that Loki Games has announced that Quake 3 Arena for Linux is hitting stores like EB and Fry's today! I will certainly have to run by EB after work to see if this is true. Man, screw the egg-nog action - I'm gonna need some fraggin' if I'm going to survive a day with the in-laws."

WarSpite was the first of many to write with the news that id has open-sourced the Quake 1 Source Code. This includes WinQuake, GLQuake, QuakeWorld, and GLQuakeWorld. Yes, it's been released under the GPL ^[?] . id's ftp site got the goods.

By the time you read this, FreeBSD 3.4 will have been released. Being a 3.x release, this primarily contains fixes and enhancements to existing parts of the system, rather than complete new functionality and subsystems. Those will come with the 4.0 release, later next year. That said, there are a few new developments that have been shaken out in the -current branch, and have been backported. Read on for more.

Kyrex writes "There is a great article for Quake and id fans in general here [at www.gamespot.com]. Talks about the making of quake III, id all of their games till now ... also what are their plans for next year."

gabedude writes "Quake3 Arena Demo is released for Linux." At long last it's here, and Linux players can start joining the fun. You can find it at the Quake 3 Arena page. I'm still hoping to snag one of the special tin versions, but this will let me get in some fragging.

Everyone in the known universe has been submitting the news that Loki Software will be publishing and distributing Quake III Arena for Linux. The game will be published Dec. 27. The box will be a limited-edition collector's tin box and will include SuSE Linux 6.3. Asking price is 50$.

Thanks to the miracle of e-mail and a few administrators outraged at the latest law enforcement intrusion into American schools, we present below the FBI's Geek Profile, the agency's secret checklist of potentially violent characteristics being distributed to educational institutions in the United States and Canada. I'm turning myself in.

There have been a spate of reports about the usefulness of FreeBSD's Linux ABI recently. First off, Daeron wrote in with the news that VMWare now runs on FreeBSD, thanks to the efforts of Vladimir Silyaev. Vladimir has a page up with instructions and caveats. Secondly, Jacob Hart has confirmed that the Unreal Tournament Demo works flawlessly. Finally, Mark van Woerkom has created FreeBSD ports skeletons for Linux Quake 3 Test.

ttyRazor writes "ga-source.com is reporting that at Comdex they were told by NVidia that they will be releasing an OpenGL ICD for Linux for all their current products by the end of the year. Woohoo! Quake 3 on my TNT in Linux! One less reason to dual boot. " Mmmm...prettier graphics. I'll give thanks for that.

Iceweasel writes "BTW, since Unreal Tournament came out today (and trust me, I already have my copy :), the Linux UT files were released today. Go to www.fileplanet.com or unreal.epicgames.com to get the 3 MB download. " Thanks to all the people who e-mailed me about GT Interactive - click below to get Tim Sweeney's take on the whole deal.

Geek Dash Boy writes "I noted on Stomped that Quake 3 Arena has gone gold. There's no official news item on the Q3A web site, but two of the folks working on the game updated their .plan files with the news. " Mmm...much fragging to be done.

We're being barraged with submissions that the Quake 3 Demo Test for Linux is now available, along with Win32 and Mac versions for the OS-challenged. I just tried it and the download was maxing out my DSL line, so I guess the Sandpiper guys are on the job.

It seems like everyone and their dog wrote in with the news that the Quake 3 Demo Test is now available for download. Win32 only at the moment, although that probably won't stop most of you. Highlights include single player mode with bots (it says here), and a new map. And it does look very pretty.

Stern reviewed one of the most gimme books of the year: O'Reilly's User Friendly. The whole gang is gathered together in a dead tree version, which means you can finally take UF where ever you want to be.

Last week "The War In Heaven," the world's first Christian action game, went on sale, opening a whole new chapter in the never-ending struggle between technology and the self-proclaimed forces of morality.

E-Rock writes " Looks like another couple of quakes hit Taiwan. [The story's from CNN.com.] Just when I thought RAM prices were able to return to reality." There's also the people who work in those factories, who are having a rough time of it right now. I wonder if there's a Taiwan Electronics Industry Workers' Relief Fund or something like that. I'd kick in a few bucks.

Jacek Fedorynski writes "The Quake god recently interviewed on Slashdot, John Carmack, updated his .plan with word that there will be no next version of Q3Test - the next release will be a full demo with bot support and one more map (for beginners). The date of the release hasn't been set yet. Carmack also comments on the new Macintoshes. "

A few days past, we solicited questions from you folks to ask QuakeLaird John Carmack ^[?] . We sent the questions over to him, and he answered. A lot. It's definitely one of the best interviews we've had yet - click below to read more.

jon pointed us to an amazing screen. Its 50 inches, its flat, and at $20k you could buy a nice car instead. And 1280x768 doesn't seem like that many pixels for that much real estate. But still... yum. If anyone at pioneer wants to ship me a demo unit I promise to play quake on it and return it in a few years...

John Carmack is, of course, a GameGod[tm] so famous that even stuffy, all-business Forbes.com recently noticed him and Id Software. He's been interviewed about 42 gazillion times - but not by you. So go ahead. One question per post please, and since we expect a huge response, please try not to whine too loudly if our exotic blend of moderation, editorial judiciousness, and random dart-throwing doesn't pop your question(s) to the top o' the heap, which only has room for 10 - 15 no matter how many are submitted. Answers will be posted Friday, as usual, and I'm sure they'll be great, because John's a great guy!