Re: How do I know if I want Linux

> Jon and Tim can answer this one better, but yes you can run a Windows CAM
> program on another computer and then load the resulting G-code into the
> Linux EMC machine. I did a little bit of this Sunday using my one and only
> linux computer. Vector is the cam program that Tim and I use, I think Jon
> uses Bobcad which is similar. I did a simple profile, saved the g-code in
> my vector directory. Rebooted to Linux, mounted the windows partition and
> loaded the program. It's a pain, but right now I only have Linux going on
> this one machine. It's time to buy another pentium. The last one, a
> pentium 100, came from a friend who was upgrading.
> Jon and Tim probably are running network setups with their systems.
> The native format that emc understands is just G-codes in plain ASCII.
> Nothing special there. Thank God Bill Gates didn't get ahold of G-codes!
> Everyone would have to upgrade to CNC 2000-that would bring a new meaning
> to the word "Crash".

Dan:

Excellent response. That was all I was looking for, and hopefully Jon or
Tim will tag in here and explain the network a little more in depth. But
for now I will probably do much like you did. I have a lot of Windows
based programs that I will be using and from your explanation, I will
not run EMC and WindowsXX together for controlling the steppers.

Maybe this Linux will turn into an eye opener for Bill Gates if enough
people find that from articles written that there is a lot of stability
to Linux and people start to change over. More than likely Gates will
try to purchase the rights to Linux if it's available or something like
that. But yes, I am definitely glad he never got to G-codes.

Regards,
Don Hughes