Two Fabulous Solitaires for Linux

by Howard Fosdick   © RexxInfo.org

Like playing solitaire? Who doesn't?

Ever since Microsoft first included solitaire with Windows 3.0 in 1990, what some call patience games have been a mainstay of computer entertainment. If you're like me, you sometimes indulge for a quick break from your hectic coding life. And what's wrong with that?

I've tried pretty much all the Linux solitaires out there. This article introduces the two best.

Aisleriot

Aisleriot is part of the GNOME Games Collection. It offers you more than 90 different solitaire games to select from. That's sure to include all your favorites. It features this attractive interface:



Playing Klondike Solitaire in Aisleriot


Like most well-designed card games, you can toggle for a hint any time you like, undo a move, track statistics, turn sound on or off, and more. You can set game-specific preferences for games like Klondike, where multiple variants are popular.

The handy Help button provides the rules to any game with which you aren't familiar. The writing is terse but complete... perfect for picking up a new game in a jiff.

Aisleriot is available in most repositories. Or you can install it like this:


By default, it only comes with a couple card designs. Be sure to install the add-on that gives you additional card backings:

PySol Fan Club Edition

If Aisleriot's 90-odd games aren't enough for you, you're ready to try the PyCol Fan Club Edition. With over one thousand solitaire games, the program offers so many that it organizes them hierarchically to make them accessible:



PySol Offers Many Different Games


Choices include games from all over the world: the UK, continental Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, India, and China.

You can play with round Hanafuda cards from Japan, Ganjifa cards from India, Mahjongg tiles from China, Tarock cards from central Europe, and of course standard western playing cards.

With all these options, you have a vast palette of card sets from which to choose. Lately, I've enjoyed learning Tarock games with one of the tarocci 78-card sets. That's right, the same card deck used for fortune-telling is the basis for a fascinating group of card solitaires. Who knew?

Besides choosing a game by origin, you can find games by type, skill level, game features, and inventor. PySol also includes dozens of original games available nowhere else.

The program bundles everything together in an attractive interface:



PySol's Klondike Solitaire Screen


PySol includes all the features you'd hope for. These include optional hints, unlimited undo, statistics, optional sound, an integrated HTML Help browser, and more. As with Aisleriot, the Help function displays rules for each game. Rules are complete but terse. So for games for which I'm not familiar, sometimes I've found it useful to google for more extensive explanations. The Pagat Card Game website has rules for almost any card game imaginable, whether it be a solitaire or multiplayer game.

An unusual, fun feature in PySol is the solitaire wizard. You enter your preferences into its six panels and thereby create your very own solitaire game! You can play it immediately after you create it.

Once you've invented your game, you can save it to an external file. Then open that file to play the game later, or send it to friends to share your creation.

Installing PySol is easy. As with Aisleriot, be sure to install the extra card sets:


Should you have any trouble installing Pysol, check your version of Python. The Pysol download may require a different Python version than that you are running.

Summary

I've tried dozens of solitaire game apps. With their attractive layouts and wide variety of available games, these two are the very best.

And should your boss catch you playing, just tell her you're learning Python from the PySol source code!

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