Since bringing my Eee PC home last month, I've probably spent most of my time using Firefox, GIMP, and Pidgin for productivity and communication. Well, not counting the many many hours I've spent tweaking Xandros or testing out alternate operating systems.

But sometimes you've got to set aside your grownup endeavors and make some time to play. With its small screen, low resolution, and integrated graphics chip, the Eee PC is hardly a killer gaming rig. But it's still probably faster than any PC you had just a few years ago. So it's plenty capable of running some older strategy, RPG, or action games, whether you're running Windows or Linux.

After I decided that I'm just no good at Tux Racer (or Planet Penguin Racer, as it's called on the Eee PC), I cast about looking for a good strategy game. I love me some Warcraft/Starcraft style action. And then I remembered Wargus, an application I had installed on my PocketPC ages ago. Basically, Wargus uses an open source game engine called Stratagus to emulate Warcraft 2.

One of the most popular games developed for Stratagus is Bos Wars, and the developers have halted development of Stratagus to focus their attention on Bos Wars as a standalone project. While I was able to download Bos Wars 2.4.1 from the project website, I couldn't figure out how to install it on my Eee PC. I'm sure there's a simple way, I just didn't take the time to find it. Instead I fired up the Synaptic package manager and made sure I had my Xandros repositories enabled and then did a search for Bos.

Sure enough, there's a package called Bos, and when you install it, Synaptic (or apt-get if you're using the command line) will install the Stratagus engine. What you get is an older version of the game, but it runs great on the Eee PC. By default, it loads up in a 640 x 480 screen, but if you click full screen it well... fills the screen.

I'm not a huge fan of the Eee's trackpad, and this game requires a lot of scrolling around, so I don't see myself playing very often unless I'm sitting at a desk or table with a mouse plugged in. But it's certainly playable using the trackpad.

One of the best things about Stratagus/Bos Wars is that it takes up just 24MB, making it a light weight alternative to installing Windows XP and Starcraft.