[Radiance-general] OS Compariton (WAS:Re: rad -n and -N parameters / switches)

[Guglielmetti, Robert]

Chris is right, we're veering, so new subject line.

Chris, when I got my first OSX system (2002), the difference between OSX
10.1 and any Linux distro at the time was vast; there simply was no
comparison. I mean, really. No comparison, if we're talking barriers to
entry for Radiance. Today, I would say Ubuntu is pretty close to MacOS,
but still not quite as polished as MacOS. I use Snow Leopard, and then I
have WinXP, Win7, Ubuntu 11.04 VMs available on VMWare Fusion. So far I'm
still willing to pay the Apple tax on my hardware every few years or so.
 


Rob Guglielmetti  IESNA, LEED AP
Commercial Buildings Research Group
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
1617 Cole Blvd MS:RSF202
Golden, CO 80401
T. 303.275.4319
F. 303.630.2055
E. robert.guglielmetti at nrel.gov





On 6/16/11 1:07 PM, "Christopher Rush" <Christopher.Rush at arup.com> wrote:

>The thread is veering off topic, but I can't resist chiming in...
>
>I'm not sure that OSX has any true advantage over Ubuntu or maybe another
>modern user friendly linux distribution purely for Radiance usage. The
>only advantage I see to OSX over linux is that it's more popular, so
>you'll see more frequent pre-compiled binaries floating around - for
>Radiance itself and any tools that users develop. On the other hand,
>linux has a strong advantage in terms of lower barrier to entry - it is
>cheaper to buy/inherit any old desktop box and install Ubuntu on it than
>to get a hold of a top notch Mac machine. It is even quite possible to
>set up an existing Windows machine to dual-boot into Ubuntu as necessary.
>https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
>
>Windows implementation has the lowest barrier to entry in most cases, but
>shortfalls such as no file locking, X11 support, friendliness for
>programming/scripting, etc. On the other hand some common modeling tools
>such as Autodesk products are Windows native - so could avoid additional
>machines.
>
>
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