[Ham-Linux] Which Distro/Apps/Apps development software to use?

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On Wed, 2009-02-11 at 23:30 +0000, Stephen Farthing wrote:
> Hi Guys.
> 
>  
> 
> I have just finished putting together a computer for the shack. It is
> a dual core AMD something or other with 1Gbyte of RAM and 250 GByte
> ofSata HDD. I also have a soundblaster USB external sound “card” I
> want to use as well. The mother board has onboard everything else I
> think I need, and until the Gods of freecycle smile on me I’ll be
> using an old SVSG CRT Old School monitor.  Also it has many, many USB
> ports and one serial port. 
> 
>  
> 
> I am keen to work towards a “Linux only” shack system because I feel
> that Linux is more in keeping with the spirit of ham Radio than
> Windows which I have to use professionally as well as an OS/X Mac. I
> am reasonably computer proficient and can work my way around shell
> scripts and C Programs as well as COBOL and a load of other old skool
> languages. (and no I don’t want a punch card reader either!). I am
> also learning my way around Ruby and Joomla for what it’s worth and C#
> under Vista. 
> 
>  
> 
> The sorts of things I want to do are :-
> 
>  
> 
> Rig control – FT817, TS 570, Elecraft K2
> 
> Digital and weak signal modes – WSPR, PSK, QRSS, Morse. RTTY
> 
> SDR – I have a Softrock 9. Is there a linux equivalent of Power SDR?
> 
> Test equipment  - Probably be building a VNA to Toms design in QEX,
> use of the sound card as an AF generator and component tester, 
> 
> AVR programming (probably using the Adruino board and Wiring which I
> believe runs under Linux
> 
> Spice circuit simulation
> 
> Development of bespoke applications to run under, I guess, Gnome
> and/or KDE in a high level language (e.g. C, Ruby) 
> 
> Small scale web site development to document the above and act as a
> “Lab Notebook”
> 
> Logging
> 
> Connect to the internet via wifi
> 
> Anything else you guys can come up with.. 
> 
>  
> 
> So the questions are :-
> 
>  
> 
> What distro should I use?
> 
> What applications should I use?
> 
> Is there a decent Applications Development environment that I can use
> to develop GUI applications in either C or Ruby (or something similar,
> but please, please, not assembler as I am not clever enough)
> 
>  
> 
> Sorry about the bandwidth – but I am sure someone out has figured it
> all out before hand.
> 
>  
> 
> 72 de Steve G0XAR
> 
>  
I've been using Fedora Core 3 for a long time for internet. But getting
all the pieces found and downloaded for the ham modes has escaped me.
But flpuppy linux come with rig control and most digital modes already
working. A small distro that runs in 256 MB of ram while booted from CD
or thumb drive. It does sneak in a piece of the HDD if you wish, but
keeps it all in one file in whatever file system it finds on the hard
drive.

73, Jerry, K0CQ