inspections enscribed:
As someone who tried Mandrake 9 some years ago and gave it away as just
too much hassle to do the things that windows does for you without
thinking about it, why is there such a demand for Linux based systems
for PowerSDR .
Not wishing to open a can of worms but I fail to see why people try to
make things more complicated rather than taking the easy way that is
readily available.
Perhaps I'm just lazy, well I know I am, but can someone explain why
Linux is a better way to go to run my radio with PowerSDR.
I understand Linux has so much to offer in general and of course is
free, but in the PowerSDR context ONLY, what does it have that makes it
worth learning to use? 90% of the messages that refer to Linux might
just as well have been written in Swahili !!, using the apt get gui tool
for example.
I'd really be interested to hear the answer and off forum would be fine.
I retain an open mind, have absolutely nothing against linux and would
happily convert if shown the reasons.
tnx & 73
Keith VK6XH
I have been following this discussion with interest, even though I don't
YET have an SDR. (That will be remedied very soon). However, I have a
view of how I will be approaching this experience.
I am a casual HF DXer (200+ countries, I really don't keep score). I
enjoy chatting to a certain group of local folks on 75m and top-band. I
make lots of noise on 6m when Es is in season. I have a pretty good
station for all bands from 144 through 1296.. I have a nice portable
setup for 10Gigs.
I want to have a plug-and-play radio to enhance this, as I am convinced
that the performance is better than any of the radios I currently use.
For this purpose I will have a SDR1000, I'll be using a Windows XP
system. I will be downloading the latest operating version, and I expect
it to work. The main reason I am using MS is that I really need to run
Matlab and Labview on the same machine.
I am also a big tinkerer. Most of my station is either homebrew, or
heavily modified commercial stuff. I have a bigger investment in test
gear than I do in traditional ham gear. I wish to play with the
capabilities of the SDR1K, and its derivatives. For that, I will be
doing any software changes in a Linux environment. Currently I am using
Suse, but I would have no problem running ubuntu if I needed to. This is
on a separate PC, although they are all networked together.
Just as background, as part of my normal employment some years ago I
worked on on a big Unix product development. That was fun. Later, we
switched to NT as the corporate platform. Doing anything there was
excruciatingly painful. There is no way I would think of going there in
a hobby environment.
So, each to their own, etc. I'm probably going to get to the point
where if I don't like something in the 'official' release, I'll write my
own stuff to fix it.
It will not be in Windows.
73 Alf NU8I
Scottsdale AZ DM43an
