[volt-nuts] do you like Labview in your labs?

[J. Forster]

> If you stick with a stable version of an opensource software product, and
> don't upgrade it, programmers won't "screw with it".  On the other hand,
> if
> you upgrade any software, open source, or not, programmers will have
> screwed
> with it.  That's why it is called an upgrade.

That's why I said "older version". I generally go fr the last Rev before a
major upgrade. Never a new release.

> So, you discovered the problem with using an incompetent programmer.  They
> exist.  Any competent programmer would have tested the utility to make
> sure
> that you could backup and restore everything the utility was supposed to
> backup and restore.

Not in this case. The Harvard lab only had 1 disk drive, not several.

> Most of the opensource projects are built by teams.  Virtually every
> project
> that I mentioned earlier were written by corporate teams.  Openoffice.org
> is by
> Sun. Mozilla, by Netscape.  SELinux, by NSA. Octave, by the University of
> Texas, and funded by DEC, SUN, IBM, ..., OpenSolaris is by Sun.  Python is
> by the Python Software Foundation (A non-profit corporation).  The
> ubiquitous
> scripting language PERL was written by the genius Larry Wall.

So what? You like UNIX. I don't.

> Further, if you used any of the earlier versions of windows (95,98,XP),
> the
> IP layer, and PPP code were lifted verbatim from BSD unix.  IE was based
> on
> the open source mosaic project.

But MS put it together, along with Word, Excel, Access and it all works
well. No muss, no fuss. I used to use Netscape, until it would no longer
work for eBay. I see ZERO advantage to screwing around with myriads of
programs, when all I need is a very few basic tools.

> I can't think of a single microprocessor/controller manufacturer in the
> last
> 15 years that didn't first do the porting work for their new machine to
> the opensource GCC compiler.

So what? Just because a company uses a CNC machine to make a mold for
something, I just need what comes out of the mold.

> You are really doing yourself a disservice letting the experiences you had
> with one incompetent programmer keep you from enjoying the goodies
offered by the opensource software movement.

And by not moving my various Groups to Facebook also, so I'm told. Not
going to happen.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The tools on my desktop are just about
every one that I need. They are tools, not ends in themselves.

> If you stay with the stable releases
> of Debian, or Ubuntu, or Mint linux, I dare say you will never find a bug.
>
> -Chuck Harris
>

I've never found a bug in any of the commercial SW I use, actually. There
are a few crocks, but no bugs.

-John

==============