Lpc2000

> I am getting tired of Linux users claiming that Linux is so much better than
> Windows/OSX/QNX/Unix whatever. The market decides which OS a development
> tool company will support.

Trust me, Linux, and UNIX systems in general, are indeed MUCH better since 
they are more reliable and powerful than any microsoft based system (mind 
you, not as easy to use, for most users at least).

At work I have both a winxp and Linux box. I just rebooted the winxp on 
Thursday night box because a dos prompt hung the machine. On my Linux box 
that app would have been killed in 2 seconds with a quick command line.

Besides reliability, what about tools? With Linux I get lots of great 
terminal emulators, TFTP/NFS servers, and compilers and debug tools for 
free.

I could give you a 1000 more examples of why Linux/UNIX is better, yet it 
would just bore you to death. Instead, how about trying it out before 
complaining some more?

If you want to know why most tool companies don't support Linux, it is 
simply because there aren't enough paying Linux users (as a commercial 
tool vendor rep pointed out recently on this list). And why are there not 
enough Linux users willing to pay $$$? Not because they are cheap, it's 
because most people are too lazy to learn a new OS (and especially one 
that takes a little more work to manage like a Linux/UNIX box). They want 
point and click and no RTFM. And more importantly, many IT departments 
don't want the extra effort of supporting non-windows boxes. In my 
situation I support my Linux boxes myself (as do my peers) because our it 
staff won't (some companies do, mind you).

It's that simple. More people need to wake up and realize windows is 
indeed crappy and unreliable, and that there are other better 
alternatives.

Just on a side note, all the development I do is Linux based when I can, 
and windows when I have no other choice. For example, all of my AVR ARM 
GCC based development is done using Linux (see my site for the tool-chain 
build scripts), as is most of my QNX work (on a side note, their tools 
actually come on CDs for windows/Linux/MAC and even QNX-self hosted). All 
the boards I design are done with eagle under Linux, and most of my 
Verilog work is simulated under Linux with wine helping helping out the 
rest (Xilinx tools).

Personally, I would like to see more companies porting their debug tools 
to Linux. Macraigor and Abatron (two vendors I use) have been doing a good 
effort making their tools work under Linux (as for Macraigor, everything 
except their wiggler will work under Linux, although I like the Macraigor 
mpdemon and Abatron bdi2000 which allow a simple gdb connection over a LAN 
so I can use my Linux based GDB/Insight).

- Rod