|
| From: | John R. Ackermann N8UR |
| Subject: | Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Windows Based Solutions and Linux Developer Hostility |
| Date: | Fri, 26 Sep 2003 14:16:09 -0400 |
Hi Joshua -- First, nice callsign (particularly if you have any US Navy connection!)Since it's my message you responded to, let me throw in a couple of thoughts. I'm not a developer, though, so I can't talk to the advantages of developing under Windows versus Linux.
I use a Windows machine at work, my wife and daughter use Windows laptops at home, and we have two Win2K machines in the house, one a shared box for general purpose stuff, and the other the machine I threw together to run the SDR-1000 software. So, I'm not a total anti-Microsoft zealot. But I've been running Unix boxes since about 1990, and using Linux since 1994, alongside my Windows machines. Some time ago, I concluded that Linux had reached the point where it could do just about everything I needed, and I made the decision to, as much as I can, use Linux for my own computing needs. I did that for several reasons, most of them philosophical rather than technical.
Primarily, most of my spare-time computing is related to my hobby. And, software is becoming a more and more important part of ham radio. I don't have anything against folks trying to make money from their talents, but I view today's ham software as the equivalent of a schematic diagram thirty years ago, and I like to operate in an environment where people can pick apart the technology to improve it. That culture of sharing is very strong in the Linux (open source) world; for whatever reason, it is not so strong in the Microsoft world, where a large proportion of the ham software (and other software as well) is commercial, shareware, or even if beer-free, closed-source. I just feel that I can do more for my hobby, and I can learn more for myself, by operating in the open source world.
Secondarily, I believe that Microsoft has abused their position to build, and then to maintain, an illegal monopoly. In my day job, I negotiated contracts with Microsoft for my company and saw first-hand some of their tactics in the OEM channel. I can't go into detail here, but suffice it to say, it wasn't pretty. I don't like supporting a company that acts that way.
Almost finally, I believe that the open source model is likely to be the most effective one in the long term to promote the advancement of computing. If that statement is wrong, I think in a decade or three we'll look back and still say that the open source model had a major positive impact on the computer industry. This is still an infant industry -- we're living in what is the equivalent of the first days of the industrial revolution -- and just as it took a century to reach Henry Ford's culmination of the assembly line, we're still learning how to do software. I don't think there's any other business where a company (let's say Microsoft, but there are others) could have the kind of security/bug track record we see here, and still be in business. There's got to be a better way, and I'm putting my money on open source.
Finally finally, I believe that today the balance of power in the IP rights continuum has dramatically shifted in favor of content producers and away from content consumers. I think that current copyright law in the US does not comply with the Founders' conception of the balance between giving authors the incentive to create, while still advancing the public knowledge. Open source projects like gnuradio are doing their bit, in various open and subtle ways, to help counteract that imbalance.
Hope this helps a bit to explain where at least one person is coming from. 73, John N8UR address@hidden http://www.febo.com--On Friday, September 26, 2003 10:30 AM -0700 Joshua Hayworth <address@hidden> wrote:
Hello All, Just a thought... First, read the post below. I am a 23 year old independent Microsoft developer and started my own sole proprietorship called Hayworth Software Development. I just got my FCC Amateur Radio Technician license maybe 4 or 5 months ago. I haven't eaven purchased my first radio yet. I'm looking very closely at that SDR-1000 as my first purchase. I primarily use C# on the .NET platform, but I am slowly learning the inns and outs of C++ using both Visual Studio.NET 2003 and Gcc on the Linux platform. Needlesss to say, I haven't gotten that far yet. I hope to help Mr. Rodd Judd out in the process of converting GNU Radio to the win32 platform and maybe even write a wrapper for .NET use. I realize that this is a Linux based list and I may be starting a huge flame war, but can somebody help me understand this massive hostility for Microsoft and the Windows platform? <shrug> Maybe I'm just young and nieve, but I'm just not understanding how developing for one platform can be any more difficult that developing for another. It's not like you don't have the documentation that you need (http://msdn.microsoft.com, http://www.codeproject.com/, ... Et all). Joshua Hayworth (KD7USN) Camano Island, WA -----Original Message----- From: address@hidden [mailto:address@hidden On Behalf Of John R. Ackermann N8UR Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 9:57 AM To: Alberto di Bene; address@hidden Subject: Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] RE: gnuradio based spectrum analyzer Hi Alberto -- Thanks for the pointer. I'm not insistent on a gnuradio solution, but having spent last Sunday at the Digital Communications Conference listening to Matt's seminar on SDR and gnuradio, I thought it might give me the building blocks to do what I need. Re Spectran, I'll definitely look at it, but I am hoping for a Linux solution as all my fast computers run Linux rather than Windows these days (I have an Win2K box that I use for the Flex-Radio SDR-1000 console software, but having to keep that machine around makes me mad. That's another story, though :-) ) 73, John --On Friday, September 26, 2003 6:32 PM +0200 Alberto di Bene <address@hidden> wrote:"John R. Ackermann N8UR" <address@hidden> wrote :This is both a query for information, and a bit of begging for help. I want to put together a sound-card driven audio spectrum analyzer for a very specific purpose (measuring the frequency delta between two closely spaced RF carriers that have been brought down to audio via a receiver).John, give a look at the Spectran program available at : http://www.weaksignals.com to see if it fits your needs. It is not gnuradio based (sorry) and it runs under Windows, not Linux. If you can accept these two limitations, maybe it can be of help for your purpose. Also the Argo program there has been successfully used in the past for the frequency measuring ARRL contest. 73 Alberto I2PHD _______________________________________________ Discuss-gnuradio mailing list address@hidden http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio_______________________________________________ Discuss-gnuradio mailing list address@hidden http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio _______________________________________________ Discuss-gnuradio mailing list address@hidden http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio
| [Prev in Thread] | Current Thread | [Next in Thread] |