> On January 21, I posted the Following message:
> "Hi everyone. I am trying to decide between the Unix and Windows NT
> workstations for a new AVANCE system to be installed in a few months.
> The spectrometer will be predominantly used for solids experiments. I have
> read the responses to a similar question posted last June by Jim
> Bloxsidge, but would like to hear from anyone who has new experiences to
> report. Thanks!"
>
> I received 11 responses, half of these from people trying to make the same
> decision but who have no new information. The general feeling is similar to
> what Jim Bloxsidge reported: while NT is probably the way of the future,
> there are still bugs to be worked out.
Thanks, Tom. This is much appreciated valuable information :)
I can't seem to shake the feeling that substituting NT for Unix is like
substituting a cheap $12000 car for a top of the line $80000 luxury auto.
My concerns lie mostly in the area of networking. For example, at
the moment, I am doing backups to CD from a Bruker machine to a PC running
Linux using a script that simply rcp's each user's data directory. Within
the next three or so years we will have at least one new machine and
possible three new ones. I'd like to keep the same backup system for each
of them, if possible (under the KISS principle).
Also, when there is a problem, I can log onto the spectrometer from
anywhere and look at things and possibly reboot the system. Can this be
done with NT? Is there a telnet daemon? Another potential networking
problem (for us, at least) lies with the booking system in our lab that
relies on a web server and some cgi programs. Along with this is a small
routine that will tell who is currently using the machine ... again, using
simple unix utilities over the network. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think
that this type of thing would be particularly easy using NT.
There are other problems that I can think of involving integrating
unix system and NT systems. I have a bias against Microsoft products born
of many years of frustration with their software and I'm afraid that NT
will have to prove itself to me on several fronts in no uncertain terms
before I'll use it.
If Bruker wants to start using PC's to run their spectrometers why not
offer a version of XWinnmr that runs under Linux? Most of the code is
already available as code for the SGI so porting shouldn't be a major
problem at all. Then you'd get xwinnmr running under an ultra stable os
that could communicate very easily with other unix systems. It would even
cut some costs for Bruker since Linux is free and they wouldn't have to
purchase NT.
My 2 cents ...
Keith Brown
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
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"It's a summons."
"What's a summons?"
"It means summon's in trouble."
-- Rocky and Bullwinkle
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