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> According to last month statistics the windows version of > CCP4 packages > is around 50% of the download made from our server it comes before the > various linuxes and then comes Mac and Irix. > > So even windows might not be the most wonderful operating system it is > still the first platform used by our users. Statistics are always open to interpretation! I would guess that this is more an artefact that if you want to use CCP4 on windows then you have to install it yourself on your machine whilst if you want to use it on L/Unix then someone else could well have already installed it centrally on a well managed system (apparently they exist ;) ). Sergei, keep your options flexible, use the support you have, setting up Linux is not difficult - its only difficult for Windows experts ( :) ). I would be surprised if you could do all your work and have a complete choice by just using windows machines but at least these could usually be converted to Linux machines if need! Support for Macs is not always available at institutions, your lucky if you have it, so if you have it use it but try to have the full range of options. Good luck, Alun ___________________________________________________________ Alun Ashton, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: +44 1235 778404 Data Acquisition Group, http://www.diamond.ac.uk/ Diamond Light Source, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon, OX11 0DE, U.K. > Since I am the "windows guy" of CCP4 I can make a slight correction, > concerning moslfm which thanks to his new interface (already publicly > available as Geoff announced in the end of march) is more likely to be > portable to windows in the future, mainly because its new interface is > relying on IncrTcl-Tk and not using the X-libraries which are not > portable. > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of > Jon Wright > Sent: 19 April 2006 18:45 > To: Sergei Strelkov > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [ccp4bb]: Choice of OS platform for (bio)crystallographic > computing > > *** For details on how to be removed from this list visit the *** > *** CCP4 home page http://www.ccp4.ac.uk *** > > > > > It does seem that there are no Windows versions of several > important > > crystallographic programs/packages but I may be not up to > date -- does > > > anyone have a list of those that are available? > > A list of what is unavailable for windows would be more > interesting, and > shorter?? So far I missed: > > arp/warp > sharp > solve/resolve > mosflm (didn't find a binary exe, have seen screenshots under > cygwin/x) > whatcheck (didn't find a binary exe, thought I saw someone with a > windows version once) > > ... which perhaps shows my main interest is not PX. If you > spend most of > your time working with structures in phaser/molrep/shelx/coot/O/refmac > then they're all ported already. Anyone arguing for OpenSource must > realise that by giving away their source code they risk their program > being ported to windows ;-) > > What programs do you miss? Are they open source? > > Many in the small molecule and powder communities migrated > when windows > went 32bit and the 640 K limit disappeared (eg: ~11 years ago with > windows 95/nt versus dos+windows 3.1). Programs which didn't make the > transition mostly died out, hint hint. A motivation for choosing unix > systems for PX was 3D graphics and faster computers with bigger > memories, but nowadays the masses have caught up and it is > not so clear > what is to be gained from a technical point of view. The lack of > extensive documentation on the web for "setting things up" on windows > might mean that most people figured it out themselves so easily that > there was no motivation to help others? As a developer, once you've > ported to one windows box you've very likely ported to most of the > windows boxes in existence. > > It is strange that no one has dared to speak up for windows. A quote > from Eric Raymond a couple of years ago: > "The biggest obstacle between open-source software and world > domination > is not Microsoft, it's our own endemic cluelessness about how > to design > software that won't make nontechnical users run screaming". > Read more at > http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-horror.html. While I > can happily > get work done on linux/mac/vms, I was recently very upset to find out > that windows is the only OS which talks to a shiny sony mp3 > player, but > that is a different religous war. As much as you might hate > windows (or > sony) it is unlikely to go away anytime soon. > > Coot and all of the parts of ccp4 that I tried appear to work > great on a > windows laptop, as does shelx. Many thanks to all those who have taken > the time to support windows! I wonder what the download statistics are > for ccp4 on windows versus other versions? > > Jon > > >
