On Thu, 13 Jun 2013 06:07:20 -0500 Charles Steinkuehler <[email protected]> wrote:
> Why do you use LinuxCNC and what are the features you like best? <...> > Help me out with some "talking points"! :) It's similar to the reason I use Linux (I guess, considering the reasons I'm about to give, I should say GNU/Linux, but it's just too awkward). There are technologies that I need in my life on a continuous basis. Each of these will have costs: Initial cost of acquisition is one (but not the largest over time), maintenance, upgrades as required, etc. The largest cost of all in any technology, is what I will call the "sunk cost of intellectual investment". This is not a money cost. This cost is the sum of all the learning and thinking you have done with respect to a particular technology. In CNC, that is no small amount of learning and thinking time, and once invested is mostly sunk, that is you can't recover your investment by disposing of the goods as surplus; Your excess thoughts aren't going to bring much on eBay. It is true that some of the learning and thinking you will do with any particular technological solution will port to another similar solution. For example, a general knowledge of g-code will help you on any control system you need to operate. To me, it's unwise to make any further investment of this type in a proprietary technology. I justify this out of my previous experiences with proprietary technologies I have used in the past from manufacturers including Microsoft, Bridgeport, Autodesk, Symantec, et al. What happens (and it _always_ happens at the worst possible time) is that the manufacturer will stop supporting their product by making repair parts unavailable, or stopping technical support, or raising the costs of either of these to a level intended to herd you towards their sales department. I don't mind spending the money, but I won't abide extortion. Using their proprietary technology means that at a time most inconvenient to you, you may have to scrap your intellectual investment with no hope of recovery AND THEN MAKE ANOTHER intellectual investment to get up and running with the replacement technology. Using free (libre) technologies in the key, critical parts of your life will at least allow you to manage the process of technological advance in a way that avoids crisis. Even if the free technology is an imperfect replacement for the proprietary technology, it is cheaper to add your own extensions to fill in the gaps, or learn to live with the current limitations of the free technology (don't worry, mechanisms are in place to keep free technology advancing and the deficiencies of today will be fixed tomorrow) than to risk the loss of your mental assets whenever it suits the schedule of the proprietary vendor. This is the only reason you need to use LinuxCNC. Thanks, Matt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
