Re: .bin file and other annoyances

Depends on what you mean by "ready for prime time" :-)

As someone else pointed out, if you are looking for a standard desktop then IMHO Linux is ready to go. Supported software is a LOT easier to install than on Windoze - when the added benefit that it is not going to screw the registry. I do agree that it gets very ugly very quickly when you veer from the beaten track. But, at least for the developer, there are somewhat recognizable paths you are veering onto.

What it really comes down to is whether or not the software/hardware is supported in the OS. Of course the key word here is "supported". And the question is how many suppliers are supporting Linux as opposed to the open source community developing generic drivers/finding a way to get software working.

Obviously, when it comes to i, IBM is NOT supporting Linux. The only reason I still need to use Windoze (in Virtualbox) is to use Navigator and WDSC/RDi/RSE. BTW I gave up on trying to get the Linux version of Client Access to work - way too much effort for the minimal return it offers. I find TN5250J to be a much better emulator and for the rest there is my VM.

Given the choice between Windoze, Linux and Mac... let me rephrase that, given the choice between Linux and Mac... it all depends on whether or not you already have a Mac. Is the difference between Mac and Linux worth the 2/3K I need to spend to buy a Mac? My little old Dell D620 just got a whole new lease of life thanks to Ubuntu - and all it cost me was about the same length of time as the Windoze rebuild was going to cost me - and it was a lot of fun and an "interesting" learning experience along the way.

Regards

Paul Tuohy
ComCon
www.comconadvisor.com www.systemideveloper.com




Jon Paris wrote:

Some of my "spare" time the last couple of days has been spent playing with Ubunu - not the very latest version (which is probably called "Randy Rhino" or something equally interesting but meaningless) and I am reminded of the line from the Longfellow poem ... "When she was good she was very very good, but when she was bad she was horrid."

I'm of course comparing it with Mac and it does seem to me that the two are fairly comparable in some ways but ... when there is no install package (or it is apparently not sufficiently automated) boy do things get ugly quickly!

Case in point I had downloaded the iSeries Access a while back and decided to have a try with that - after much messing about and Googling I eventually worked out the commands to install it. But there were no dialogs, nothing has been added to any menus, zilch. So I dig and google and dig some more but I cannot get the #@$% thing to run - all I get in the terminal is that it can't find the executable. I've cd'd into the directory, tried sudo, added a .bin extension, etc. and nothing.

Similar situation with a USB turntable - wasted hours on that last night before discovering that it failed on Windows too. Miracle of miracles though - Windows was actually _helpful_ in the diagnostics and we realized that the supplied cable was faulty - first bad USB cable I've ever had. Changed cables - worked with Windows instantly. Ubuntu - that was a different story. It finally worked after two hours of frustration and I still haven't a clue which of the multiplicity of settings etc. finally fixed it.

The big problem for me as a Linux/Unix newbie is what the hell to do when things don't work. Right now that renders it impractical from a work perspective. I need stuff to "just work" - when to make the OS do that causes me more grief than with Windows that's when I begin to wonder.

The strides Ubuntu in particular has made in the 2 years since I last seriously looked at it are amazing - but for me it still doesn't seem "ready for prime time" unless you are a Unix hack. So me - I'll be staying with my Mac for the foreseeable future. But I will see about using Linux for file servers etc. in the Network


Jon Paris

www.Partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com