Re: GLAD, ZEMAX on Linux

I tried to post earlier but it was lost in the Google sauce.

I happen to like Linux a lot. I don't happen to be happy with MS and
its increasing cost and time for support. I do not wish to spend
several hundred dollars on Vista and have it phone home to Microsoft. I
don't wish to spend any time proving to a piece of software that I have
a license to use it. Further, with the "kill switch" modules in Vista,
it is entirely possible, however unlikely (or not), to have a virus or
malware trigger the limited operating mode (browser only with no access
to your data files store in Vista's file system) and set the clock
ahead thirty days so you don't even have that.

That is why I have installed Fedora Core 6 on one of my laptops that is
licensed for Windows 2000. I downloaded VMware Workstation and created
a Windows 2000 Virtual Machine (VM). I have also installed FRED (from
Photon Engineering) that uses the same hardware type dongle as Code V.
I have had no problems using FRED in the Win2K VM. In fact if you make
it run full screen, you can't even tell that its running on a Linux
host.

You do give up some performance, about a third, but that is probably
much better than running an emulator or a reverse engineered windows
API (WINE). That performance is traded for a truly portable virtual
computer that can be used anywhere with VMware Player for free. You can
take snap shots and use these to revert the computer state or even
clone a computer for use elsewhere or as a succinct backup. Imagine
taking a new computer (with just about any host OS), installing VMware
Player, copying some files, and accessing all of your Windows
applications without hours of setup, installations and subsequent
patching and updating.

Personally, I am starting to like Linux more than the "Windows"
experience. I have found a great number of engineering apps that run in
Linux in addition to the standard browser, email and office tools. I
have also used a great program planning tool that can import my MS
Project files.

All I can say is that while Linux continues to improve, Windows only
gets larger, more cumbersome and more expensive. It might do the
engineering community good to assess Linux and ask the software vendors
when they will port their applications to Linux.

James A Carter III
http://www.jacarter3.com
http://www.opticalconsulting.com

On Nov 14, 5:26 am, "SeekUp" <seek.up.g...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My employer has made a policy decision to switch all pc's over to Linux
soon. Does anyone have any experience of using either GLAD or ZEMAX with a
Windows emulator (something like Wine, I suppose)?

.

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