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Forum Index : Other Stuff : Why I hate Linux
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
OK. Here we go... CNC Router PC mainboard died. It was a old XP machine, and after a few attempts to get a replacement board up and going, I gave up and decided to modernise. I'm using a ESP32 as the driver, all I need to do it push GCode commands to it via a USB connection from a PC of some sort. The "PC" needs to have a cad program, to edit DXF files. It needs a DXF to GCode program, and a program to send the GCode to the machine. On my laptop running Windows 10, I installed QCAD ( I like it ), DXF2GCODE, and UGS. Worked a treat, easy install, and the CNC was back up and running. All 3 programs are open source, written in C++, Java and Python. I use my laptop often in the office, so needed another PC to do the job. All 3 of those programs will run under linux according to the web sites. Yeah, right  First I tried a Raspberry Pi. QCAD will install, but wont run, no support for ARM processors. Neither will DXF2GCODE for other reasons I'll mention soon. UGS did work. So installed Mint on a fairly new unused PC. QCad didn't work, but after some help from their forums, I downloaded and installed a previous version, that worked. UGS worked. DXF2GCode didnt work, just locked up. I tried a Unbuntu install. Same result, had to run a old copy of QCAD and no luck with DXF2GCODE. After some research I discovered DXF2GCODE wont work with the latest versions of Python, I needed to install a earlier version. What a job that was! That didn't work either. So, QCAD needs a older version to run on the latest OS's of both Mint and Unbuntu, and DXF2GCODE just wont run no matter what I try. 3 days later, I gave up and installed Windows 10 on that PC. Why? Because it works. I use Linux as a server, its great at that, but I've tried to find a practical use of a Linux desktop PC for over 30 years now and I find it as useless as it was back in the 90's. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9305 |
I hear and feel your pain. I often have fights with Linux, but in my case, all my Linux machines tend to be single-use. Servers as you mention - Linux is in, I think, its natural element there, and it is very, very good at server applications. Mediaplayers such as Plex or OPENelec etc, are wonderful on Raspberry Pi's, and they just run and run and run, and never give any issues - not for me, anyway. Desktops seem to be the main issue for just about anyone trying to migrate from Windoze to Linux. That has been my issue also. Mint is excellent, and I can certainly see why it is one of the most popular distros, and they have excellent support also, but the amount of hoop-jumping I had to do, to get things to work in Mint on the desktop frustrated me to no end. I also agree, it was just as frustrating as twenty years ago, although, the GUI's have improved a-lot since then, so the user-interface is much nicer and more intuitive, but as soon as something goes wrong, I found myself completely stuck. You cannot think or experiment your way out of the problem, unless you are already a Linux guru. Forums helped a lot(and still do), and most issues can be fixed, by running horrendously complicated looking terminal scripts, but unless you are a Linux guru, you'd NEVER work that out for yourself. I guess it is just the nature of the beast. Even though I dislike Windoze for many things, and W11 is a pig with respect to secure-boot and TPM(trusted platform module) etc, making new mainboards essentially locked to ONLY Windoze installs, unless you can beg a key out of MS to run Linux, I'm staying right the hell away from W11 and newer motherboards till someone can write hacks to defeat mainly secure-boot and TPM. But I digress..... Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Yes not a fan of Win11. Its like they say, every second edition of Windows is rubbish. Once I installed Win10 on the CNC PC, which did take a long time, I installed QCAD, UGS and DXF2GCODE. DXF2GCODE needed the C++ redistributable, so grabbed that off the Microsoft site. All up, installing the 3 packages took less than 10 minutes, and they are all now working. Plugged in the ESP32 and Windows found and installed the USB-serial driver automatically. Done. Yes I need to buy a licence for the new Win10 install, but look how much time I could have saved if I just went down the Windows path from the start. Days wasted, and time has a cost that cant be ignored. But yes, as a server, I'm very happy with Linux. I use it both as my home server, a Pi with ext HD, and for my cloud servers for my clients. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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