[simpits-tech] Frustration!

[Cris Harrison]

On 2/12/2012 5:46 PM, dabigboy at cox.net wrote:
> Grrr....well I just found out the Fly Elise software I was going to use for my sim is Windows-only.....the screen warping software. Thus far that has been the case with all packages I've found. My sim is 100% Linux at this point, right down to my instrument panel display computers. I thought about caving in and running  Windows XP on my visual computers, but.....I just can't bring myself to run a piece of crap operating system on my project.
>
> If it were 10 years ago and I didn't know any better, I would probably just use Windows and be fine. But now that I've seen how an operating system is SUPPOSED to work, it's like going back to a 1990's Ford after driving a new Ferrari around for a while. Windows is slow, it's glitchy, it crashes, it gets in the way (especially when developing and prototyping sim stuff), it feels clunky, it leaks memory like the SR-71 leaks fuel, NTFS breaks itself as a matter of routine, the interface STILL looks like something from Fisher Price......I just can't do it.
>
> You know Windows doesn't even have a way to intelligently enumerate USB devices in any sane order? That means what is button 12 right now might not be button 12 next time you reboot, because Windows is SOMETIMES random in how it enumerates USB stuff. Plus, if you need to connect/disconnect a USB joystick controller, when you plug it back in OR just happen to not use the same USB port, it will get a new ID, throwing the button assignments into chaos once again. In Linux we can write udev rules so that the virtual device (or other attributes) of the USB device remains fixed based on serial number, vendor, model number, or a host of other USB metadata, REGARDLESS of what order the devices are plugged in or which port is used. We can even do fun things like automatically mount a specific USB storage device to a specific mount point, or even run scripts and programs when a device is plugged in.
>
> Every time I see a Windows computer with labels on the USB ports, I just shake my head a little (the same feeling I get when I plug a USB mouse into a different port in a Windows machine and it has to "find" the drivers and "install" the mouse again). Windows has single-handedly defeated one of the chief selling points of USB technology in the first place.
>
> Ahhhh....enough venting for now. If Fly Elise doesn't let me help them port their plugin, I guess my only option will be to go hit the OpenGL docs heavy and write the darn plugin myself.
>
> Matt
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Relax, take a deep breath.. Windows is a virus.. and its spreading....
I know as I have been living with Solaris on SPARC boxes for years as my 
development system for years!  In early 90's I started a hosting company 
.. with a SPARCserver 690 chassis & 4 1.6gb drives.. and I thought it 
was the shit!!!

Cris H.
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