Like many Linux users, I occasionally get the urge to distro-hop. It's part of the fun. It's a genuine feeling of freedom. All these different Linux distributions are basically calling you to try them out. Exploring different philosophies, package managers, init systems, and communities.

So I recently stepped away from my trusty Debian setup to try Arch Linux, Void Linux, even Fedora and Manjaro. All excellent in their own ways. I wanted to explore other options, because, you see, I've got a new hardware a few months ago, and initially Debian stable was not very good friends with it. The kernel could not recognize my Ethernet and wireless cards, for instance. I was devastated, knowing that I might have to look elsewhere, even only temporarily, in order to have a working computer with optimized hardware. So, I looked at alternative solutions within Linux universe.

I have always been interested in knowledge, both acquiring and retaining it. That's the reason I am obsessed with organizing my files and folder into logical structures. Previously, I wrote about my latest organization of my digital files.

Two years ago I wrote about the arrival of the new Debian version, Bookworm. Every two years or so, Debian issues a new version, and, well, it's that time of the year again, Debian 13 (Trixie) has just been released, and it's very much awesome.

So, what's in the Trixie's candy store?

We humans are territorial creatures, like many other mammals, and we've demonstrated this throughout history by waging wars to conquer land and exercise power over it. This is nothing new. We all recognize this perpetual reality. We've been doing it for millennia, and we continue today; the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the Sudanese Civil War, the Gaza-Israel conflict, and many more. Conflicts over land and resources remain as present as ever. In this brief essay, I will examine how human territorialism is relevant and depicted in popular culture, more specifically in video games. While doing so, I want to explore the themes of power and isolation, but more specifically, the player's intimate sense of dominion over space and time within the universe of a video game. There are many titles I could include as examples, such as Civilization, Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, Far Cry and Empire Earth. However, I'll focus on just one: Generation Zero.

I first played Alan Wake back in 2014, hard to believe that's eleven years ago. I remember being drawn in by its gripping, story-driven gameplay. Recently, I decided to revisit it, and honestly? It still holds up remarkably well.

Even the graphics, while dated in places, don’t feel jarringly old. There’s a certain charm in how it all comes together, moody lighting, foggy forests, and that eerie, small-town atmosphere.