please stop...

Lamar Owen lowen at pari.edu
Tue May 18 15:41:05 UTC 2004


On Monday 17 May 2004 17:42, Chuck Mead wrote:
> Nope. They absolutely can run it and if they're going to then they ought
> to just run it and be done. What made Fedora essential? Nothing... if
> windows is essential then run it and to hell with Fedora... 

> 'sides... it's my suspicion that the "essential software" they're all
> geeked up about is some kind of game.

Uh, you're very wrong.

Here, we need dual boot for software that will not run under the various 
emulators for various reasons (all having to do with radio and optical 
astronomy, mostly due to proprietary hardware, (and no games allowed!)), but 
we need the Linux side for other essential radio and optical astronomy 
programs (such as the massive AIPS++ and IRAF suites, along with Xephem and 
others) that won't run under Cygwin (Xephem might, but IRAF and AIPS++ are 
pigs!).

So I literally do have users who will gather data from an instrument (and a 26 
meter radio telescope is no toy, weighing in at 300,000 pounds, not counting 
the 250 cubic yard foundation!) in WinXP, then reboot into Linux to do data 
reduction.

The data gathering being done is with research-grade ADCs that have no Linux 
drivers.  But these guys want to use AIPS++ to do the deconvolving.

Now, how would you solve that situation, Mr. Mead?  Dual boot is the solution 
for that serious research-grade issue, and is something I must deal with 
daily.  More computers is not the answer, since we are a non-profit and must 
maximize available resources (otherwise I would buy IDL and scrap IRAF: but I 
would still have to use AIPS++ for NRAO compatibility, but then I would have 
a nice cluster to run that deconvolving beast.  But not on the present tight 
budget.)

So I for one am very interested in seeing this issue solved, even though I 
cannot personally reproduce it (since dual-boot is working well for our Dell 
Dimension 4500's, but they are running RHL9 and WinXP, and is working for my 
personal workstations as well, running both FC1 and FC2).

Just because you don't want to hear it doesn't mean everybody else has to shut 
up.  Killfile those you don't want to hear, in the Grand Old Usenet 
Tradition.
-- 
Lamar Owen
Director of Information Technology
Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
1 PARI Drive
Rosman, NC  28772
(828)862-5554
www.pari.edu





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