Thanks, good idea. I did download it, but I'm still not sure that even with that I would be able to transfer files and information between operating systems. I just put the Ubuntu live CD in, and to summarize: 1) OpenSolaris live CD - Can see only the C: drive (NTFS on my computer) and folders, and can't find any other partitions. 2) Belenix live CD - Can see only the C: drive and folders. Shows the other partitions and files systems (NTFS, FAT32), but cannot mount them. 3) Unbuntu live CD - Cannot see any partitions external to its own virtual disk in File Manager. Can identify all other partitions in Gparted and Device Manager, but not the contents. No apparent way to mount the drives. 4) Nexenta - haven't tried it yet.
I downloaded and opened Sun Studio to see what the Fortran can do. The manuals say nothing about creating graphics windows. My first priority at the moment is to find a simple way to get pixels and/or lines in a window and manipulate their colors, so that I can run some simulation models with real-time graphics using my old Absoft Pro 5.0 compiler. I can't afford the $800 dollars it would take me to get a new one, so the old Absoft compiler is it. Putting together a computer with an XP or Linux-type OS is in the second phase, after this feasibility study. It seems that OpenSolaris and Sun Studio are not going to be an immediate help in this first phase. Given the changes in the current economic climate, I'm afraid that the disability I'm living on now will be curtailed by the next President, whoever he is. As one good business magazine article put it, I have to be concerned about the "quickest way to income". For this first phase, shooting for results that can be parlayed into getting a grant or venture capital, things like learning C or the insides of an OS are just going to take too long. But if OpenSolaris and/or Sun Studio had even as much simple and easy graphics capability as my old PowerBASIC, I could use them right now. I hope the developers will keep that in mind for their to-do list. I'm finding things like OpenGL and GLUT a real bear to get into because of their intimate relations with C. It seems that all the freeware and open plotting graphics software I've downloaded can only run with C, cygwin, or some newer compiler I don't have or can't use. I swear, it was easier to plot a line in the old days when it took putting a mag tape on a stand-alone x-y plotter. Or using symbols on a line printer. So, thanks all, but I think I'm going to have to wait until the next round. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org
