Running a Research Lab on Free Software?

Neurotensor asks: "My lab is researching quantum computing, and I don't like the fact that Windows / Visual Basic [seems to be] the preferred solution for controlling the experiments. It's not just a pride thing, unlike many colleagues I know what I'm missing out on, in the free software world. I've wasted a *lot* of time and effort trying to implement some very simple stuff with free (and better) alternatives, simply because certain hardware manufacturers utterly refuse to support anything other than Windows." There were older articles that touched on this subject, 2 years ago, but are others still finding themselves in the same situation as the submitter?

"[Hardware Manufacturers] seem to get very upset when somebody asks them what the register-level interface to their card is. Who could blame them? Their Windows DLL is the perfect solution under [most] circumstances.

I'm not the only one around here getting frustrated, but all before me have been defeated. It seems I am to be as well, for today I have started to learn Visual Basic.

Has anyone had any *positive* experiences trying to move a lab from proprietary to free software? Surely the government-funded researchers of the world have a responsibility to ensure that their work is free, as in freedom. However, I have found out the hard way that it's usually just not worth the effort, following such ideals. You just get frustrated by apathetic colleagues, useless product support, and the conventional wisdom that it's OK to ignore your ideals, so long as you get the experiment working. Additionally, my ordeals convince my peers that free software isn't worth the trouble."

Comments

Problem: stupidity

[dos_dude]

There may be (as always) technical solutions to this problem. But they won't touch the core of the problem: There doesn't seem to be a free market for scientific equipment. If you get a grant, you buy what you need. You don't have to care about the price. And that's why scientists will shell out incredible amounts of money to some company for a bunch of wires they could buy at Radioshack. I think that the same line of reasoning holds for the software scientists are using. As long as they do get their data they don't care about the quality or price of the software. They just use it. If the scientific community would be more aware of the kind of shit they are putting up with right now, they could force the companies that live of their money to do almost anything. Today, however, scientist are the most stupid flock of sheep you are likely to meet. Stupid software for incredible prices, and just think about the stupidity with which they publish their papers, granting publishers the right to hide their work from the public and sell it for (yes, again) incredible prices.