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

Errr?

[meowsqueak]

You've wasted a *lot* of time and effort trying to implement some simple stuff with free (and better) alternatives? Surely that beats wasting a lot of time and effort trying to implement the same things with commercial (and worse) alternatives?

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you made a slight 'grammaro'.

ummm...

[djupedal]

Are you sure the fine print in your resident research grant allows you such freedom?

Re:If it ain't broke

[Mooncaller]

Umm VB and Windows are broke. And for your info there is far far better support for instrumentation in UNIX then Macrohard has ever thought of. The difficulty is 100% due to MS pressuring the manufacturers of Data Accuisition devises to only support ( publicly) Windows with their drivers.