I understand that someone like Don Wilhelm who has a fairly elaborate local network would want to stick with Windows. He'll have already done all the working out of kinks and climbing the learning curve and won't want to do that again!
However, for people with less elaborate setups or those willing to change systems, let me point out a few benefits of the Mac OSX: (1) OSX is really just BSD Unix with a fancy GUI on top. All of the familiar (to Unix and Linux folks) utilities are there. (2) There is a set of add-ons to OSX called MacPorts. Pretty much anything in Linux is also in Macports. For example, python, LaTeX, opera (a free MatLab clone), etc. And all of it is free, as in no extra charge at all. (3) There is an excellent emulation program called Virtual Box. It is developed by Oracle and is free and mostly open source. It lets me run Windows 7, Windows XP, and Ubuntu Linux on my iMac and on my Macbook Air with no gotchas. It just works. So if there is something I need Linux or Windows for, I just fire up Virtual Box. (4) The old (but sometimes necessary) X-Windows system is also a free add-on for OSX. I use it to run inkscape, a dynamite vector graphics program for art and graphs and figures, etc. (BTW, inkscape is also free and is available in Macports.) (5) In addition, you get OSX itself, the most sophisticated and polished GUI out there. The bad side is that OSX and all these goodies run only on expensive Apple hardware. It'e expensive, but in my experience worth it. The equipment is beautiful and very good quality. You get what you pay for. (6) I can run fldigi in OSX. Works fine. Also the CocoaModem and CocoaNEC programs by Kok Chen work very well. Etc. So, my 200 cents worth. Oliver W6ODJ On 29 Jan. 2014, at 07:24 AM, Anthony Marriott <[email protected]> wrote: > I am very much the same way - I have an iMac and Macbook Air but recently > built a dual boot Win7/Linux box. Originally I went for Win7 since I had had > enough of running some Ham aps under VMWare on the mac. Now I find myself > mostly in Linux mode for Ham use - I use Elementary OS as my Linux “distro” > of choice because I can configure it more to look like OSX. Linux has a lot > of Ham support, more than OSX probably, and I can configure fldigi without > issue to operate digital. I still have not given up the mac since I am also > a photographer, and Photoshop is not available under Linux, so the iMac is > still my workhorse photo machine. > > For an old machine, I’d most certainly try Linux - try eOS, or other Ubuntu > distro like Mint. > > Paul > AF5BV > > On Mar 28, 2014, at 9:21 PM, Phil Wheeler <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I'm with Don on this one. I use two Macs, with OS X 10.9.x, for most of my >> work -- but both have Windows 7 installed in dual boot configuration, >> because Windows has better support for some needs -- like ham radio and >> managing my GPS map loads to name two. My workhorse ripping and burning >> machine is a 5-year old Dell running Win 7 (was XP) because I can use very >> fast optical drives with it and I prefer the software on that platform. And >> my ham shack machine is a $280, 10.1" HP running Win 8.1; it does all the >> Elecraft support quite well, as well as digital modes. >> >> But I do have a Raspberry Pi running Linux :-) >> >> 73, Phil w7ox ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
