[Elecraft] N1MM Logger +

[Jim Brown]

On Sat,7/9/2016 9:40 PM, Ken K6MR wrote:
> “I think the amateur radio community would benefit tremendously from
> transitioning to *n*x at some point in the future.”
>
> Until the Linux folks make the installation of new hardware as easy as it is on Windows I don’t think it will ever happen.

I'm VERY strongly in Ken's camp on this one. I started with computers in 
the early '80s with a measurement system running in CP/M, which I took 
the time to learn. I also took the time to learn DOS, and to do 
relatively simple programming in SBASIC and BASIC. A few years down the 
road, I transitioned to Windoze, because that's where the engineering 
applications I needed ran. Later, I tried to make OS/2 work for me, but 
I spent more time getting those specialty Windoze apps to run in OS/2 
than I did productive, billable work.

That's how I feel about the desire to make ham stuff run in *nix. I'm an 
engineer, a ham, a technical writer. I do NOT want to spend my time 
doing IT. I have paid those dues, and lost on the deal big time. OSs are 
not religious to me, they are practical for what I want to do on a 
computer.

A year or two ago, I went through the exercise of getting Linux and VBox 
to work on a couple of machines. It was a struggle, and I don't want to 
get into the reasons. I did that to try to run an ancient version 
Quattro Pro that happens to do engineering graphs better than anything I 
can find in current software -- it's what I use for all my published 
graphs. I got VBox running, but I've failed at installing a version of 
Windoze old enough to let me load QPW from floppies!

*nix may be wonderful if you're a programmer, but I'm not. :) As Ken has 
observed, there's way too much IT overhead involved.

73, Jim K9YC