[PyMOL] OT: platform discussion

[Martin <mar...@gm...>]

Am Samstag, 20. Januar 2007 00:55 schrieb DeLano Scientific:

Hi all,

> Of course not: cost is a pragmatic consideration, but cost should not
> solely be defined in terms of purchase price.  You must also include costs
> in terms of your time and frustration.  (However, having once been a
> graduate student, purchase price alone can be THE overriding factor at that
> time in your life...)

I agree with you that cost in terms of money is a minor factor. But 
frustration can also be greatly due to the closed source character of the 
software. E.g. IBM ships no native intel mac client for Tivoli Storage 
Management. Same is the case for linux but  here, you can easily set up a 
32bit library set or java-vm which satifies the requirements.

> By ideological reasons, I mean, for example, preferring Linux over MacOS
> because it is pure "free software" as per the FSF dogma whereas OS X
> effectively combines open-source software in synergy with proprietary code.

At least for me, noble motives aren't the reason why i prefer linux. I need a 
flexible system that adapts to my workflow and not the other way round. I am 
using kile as my favourite tex editor. We tried to install that thing for a 
colleague of me on his mac. It was pain in the ***. Although macos root's are 
those of an unix system installation of not precompiled software is not as 
easy as it sounds.

> It is a very good thing that some noble individuals are willing to accept
> less convenience and extra hassles in order to keep Linux alive on the
> desktop, thus supporting the many positive long-term impacts open-source
> code and "free software" have on society.

Convenience is a subjective term. Everybody sees it's favorite 
system/editor/wordprocessor/... as the most convenient one. Habits play also 
a very big role in considering sth "convenient".

One thing that is very often difficult to explain to otheres is that many 
people do not use linux for ideological or monetary reasons. If one thinks 
back two or three years or so, linux was the only pc-compatible 64Bit os. Or 
if you need a "supercomputer compatible" os for your reserarch work, most of 
them here run on linux and it's nice to have a compatible system for local 
tests. Mac OS always forces you to use Apple's hardware and not everyone is 
happy with it.  Personally i like the "good old ibm-quality" of my t40 
thinkpad. Others prefer ugly sony stuff etc. so mac os is not a choice for 
everyone. Several commercial sofware performs bad on mac os due to emulation 
through rosetta...
Everybody has probably good reasons why he uses osX osy and osz.

Cheers
	Martin