Up until Ken's last sentence, his arguments seemed to me to be perfect
arguments for a Linux-based platform over any proprietary OS. And, by the
way, Linux is now supported not only on Intel and DEC Alpha, but also SPARC.
But the most glaring error in Ken's statement was his description of Linux as
"shareware." Linux is most definitely NOT shareware. There is a difference in
shareware (some of which is quite good software, by the way) and the open-
development accomplished through the public GNU license.
Linux is a full-blown, very stable operating system. I have a web server running
on Linux, and also a mail gateway. In my department I support DOS, Windows
3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT, Irix, Solaris, and one Novell file server, in
addtion to several Linux machines. I have found Linux (we use the Redhat
distribution) to be the least troublesome of any of them. And much of the
software that you have to pay extra money for with the commercial UNIX flavors
comes free with Linux.
I would love to see NMR companies at least check out Linux and stop thinking
that something good has to cost "an arm and a leg."
On 10 Jun 98, at 18:27, Ken Fishbein said...
> In reference to the ongoing discussion concerning migration to
> Windows NT/98 for NMR acquisition software, I would strongly side with
> moving from Unix (including Linux) to Windows-based systems. Historically,
> the computing power needed to process large, multidimensional NMR data
> sets was not available in the PC/Macintosh world, so vendors had little
> choice but to utilize Unix workstations or build their own acquisition
> computers. While Bruker's decision to move to the SGI platform was highly
> laudable, this still imposes frustrating restrictions on the NMR facility
> manager, since fully-SGI compatible hardware and software are not exactly
> abundant or inexpensive. Similarly, the owner of Sun-based instruments
> pays a premium for Sun-compatible hardware and software. By contrast, the
> huge user base for PC/Intel machines and Windows NT/98 keeps the cost of
> PC hardware and software low, provides an incentive for developers to
> introduce new technology immediately into the PC market, and helps ensure
> that compatible hardware and software will be available long into the
> future. While Windows NT/98 certainly has some shortcomings, this
> operating system runs on computers from a very wide variety of
> manufacturers, including several non-Intel platforms such as the DEC
> Alpha. Finally, computers running the Windows NT operating system are now
> available which offer more computing power than the SGI O2 and Indy at a
> much lower price and offer much better system security than Unix-based
> systems. Consequently, I don't see any reason why NMR instrument
> manufacturers shouldn't move to Windows NT. In any case, I have no
> intention of ever entrusting my instruments to computers running a
> shareware operating system such as Linux!
>
> Regards,
>
> Ken Fishbein
> Facility Manager, NMR Unit
> NIH/NIA/GRC
-Bill-
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Bill Gurley, Supervisor of Technical Services bgurley@utk.edu
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Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-1600 phone 423-974-3145
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