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The problem with Java is that it's garbage-collected. Normally, this is a good thing but the garbage collecter introduces unpredictable delays into your program and that makes it useless for robotics.

The traditional robotics language is Forth, although C is just as good. Free Pascal might also be a good bet. It's novice-friendly but not garbage-collected.

For similar reasons, regular vanilla Linux isn't ideal either. Since it multitasks, that means the scheduler will introduce random delays as well. There are realtime versions of linux (e.g. RT-Linux) but DOS sidesteps the whole issue by not multitasking at all. If your PCs are fast and you've stripped out all the unnecessary OS bloat, vanilla Linux may be responsive enough most of the time, but that drives up the cost of your hardware.

If you really need multitasking, you should switch to a realtime OS (e.g. QNX or one of the realtime Linuxes).

Also, Damn Small Linux is still enormously bloated for robotics. The Linux Router Project or one of the 1- or 2-floppy distributions would make for a much better starting point.

This site has ppp options and stuff.
https://schizo.psychosis.com/~dcinege/sprintvision .shtml

The solution.

I care that when you copy and distribute his mp3s, you are breaking the law

I don't care about the law. Nor for any other instruments of the duelistic mind.

and you are stealing his art.

To steal you must take. A taking incurs a loss. There is no loss here.

Now you could argue (dumbly) that it is a loss because they would have made money had xxx person purchase this. But this shit only exists in the minds of sick fucks otherwise know as lawyers.

It's not a loss. It's lack of a gain.

This is why 'piracy' requires it's own set of laws, because the common law act of robbery (aka theft) does not apply.

There is a neat project going on named Linux Router Project. It was described in Linux journal I think March issue. The cool thing is that the kernel can fit on a 1.44M floppy. Definitely NT can't do that.