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America's Hams Embrace Linux
Anonymous Coward writes "The current survey question over on the eham site shows that around 40% of Amateur Radio operators that responded to the survey are using Linux/Unix as an operating system in some form or other. Part of the ham radio charter is to 'experiment and innovate'...seems the tradition is alive and well in ham radio. Some of the comments are interesting as well ...What's Amateur/Ham Radio? See www.eham.net/newham/"
I'd be more willing to bet that the CBers are Windows users, though. (Yes, I know you were joking. I chose to ignore the humorous side.)
Oh come on now! Thats like saying "Americas Idiots Embrace Windows". Wait a sec...
Speaking at Defcon 12 - Credit Card Networks Revisted: Pen
HAM radio types are often some of the most technically knowledgable in the world. I'll bet that even the ones that still use Windows know enough Linux to survive. They may even have legit reasons for using Windows (like certain Windows-based EDA software still beats anything on Linux...)
I have another great idea. Let's poll KERNEL HACKERS and ask what OS they run :P
Hardware, software, and blinking lights!
Hams are technically literate folks who don't pay for anything if they don't have to. If you can build it, why pay someone for it? I'm shocked that most of them can make a radio out of some wire and a resistor because it's cheap, yet choose to pay $200 for a Windows license.
And as for the poll, I assume the same rules apply on eham.com as
So whether or not we should put any stock into a poll on another website and make an article out of it makes me wonder.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
That is just plain stupid. Some versions of Unix -- including the original -- are still proprietary, and that doesn't make them non-Unix. You clearly don't have a clue what you're talking about. Either that or your religious attachment to open source is getting in the way of your ability to think rationally. Trying running Mac OS X and pop open a terminal window. You'll find that it's Unix, whether you like it or not.
As a ham and a linux/windows/blah blah blah user, there are many reasons why hams gravitate to linux:
1. Elitism - Yes, Linux users and Hams DO have something in common.
2. Technical aspects - speaks for itself
3. Cheapness - Combine used computer parts from Hamfests and free OS and you got the spirit of Ham Radio operators.
Given such things as i2c and other methods for low level access is it any wonder?
Hardware access in Windows becomes more abstracted and obfuscated with each release, much to the detriment of things like accurate timing which is essential for things like MIDI and controlling some hardware.
Linux gives the hacker plenty of ways to poke around with hardware ports etc..
Since you said method (meaning radio emission), that also leaves out cell phones, wifi, bluetooth, microwave relay towers, pretty much every communication method except wire or optical fiber.
I am just taking your flamebait post as a chance to remind you that if it dosen't use wires, hams have probably been involved in development at some stage.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
Time for about 5 pursuits:
Job
Wife
Kids
Chores
Ham Radio -or- Linux
Saying "40% use Linux" isn't very meaninful without some form of usage context. I'd be more interested if there were a follow-up poll in which asked what they were using it for...
* Primary general-use computer
* Non-primary general-use computer
* Exclusively for Ham work
* Saw picture of penguin on back page of my Linksys router or Tivo manual
Besides, does FreeBSD provide support for ham radio like Linux does? I'm sure the guy wants to eventually integrate everything into one simple solution.
For him, Mandrake just worked. FreeBSD needed a fair amount more configuration for his preferences in a workspace, but Mandrake could meet them with the installation options. He's more or less a normal user--e-mail, light browsing, Solitaire and Mahjong, etc. Nothing overly deep. Linux distros still have a little way to go to be viable for the masses (like him), but FreeBSD is leaps and bounds behind in being ready for the masses. Just my $0.02.
...was the most recent Linux ham radio HOW-TO last updated over 7 years ago?
"With Windows, you... um... good question. You COULD write drivers, but I don't know how you would get started. I'm sure there are a few books on the subject, and maybe some web pages"
There are quite a few boks on the subject, and certainly some web pages. In particular MSDN comes to mind: all the docs and apis you need in one place. You don't know how you would get started, because you've never tried.
If the abiltity tinker and experiment with your OS is a driving factor, go with Linux, absolutely. (I'd also go with linux based on various other things being your driving motivation) But if you're interested in extending MS lock-in, I mean, uh, writing Windows specific software, you'll find that MS is as helpful and friendly as you could ever hope for. They understand that as mammoth as they are, it's the many third-party developers writing Windows specific code that really make the monopoly thing work. If you want to (or have to) write such code, they really do make life pretty nice for you.
In any case, I've got to agree "Ham radio operators use Linux more than the general population" is definitely a no-brainer. Why is this newsworthy? I mean it's obviously Ham-radio booster month here on Slashdot, but why exactly? Did one of the editors just get into ham radio? I don't dipute that ham radio is cool enough, or rather nerdy enough. Based on the Hams I've known it's got a bigger nerd factor than basically anything, but pace yourselves! This at-least-one-Ham-story-every-day just can't stay interesting. As evidenced by this article. Or even this post; I'm just rambling at this point, clearly. Insomnia will do that. Sigh. Why am I still awake?
It has nothing to do with pride. It's just a simple fact. Mac OS X is as much Unix as Linux or BSD or Xenix or AIX or any other Unix variant. If Mac OS X isn't Unix, then neither are the others. They're all slightly different from the "real" Unix, so they can't be Unix, either, if you think there's only one "standard" Unix. Your comparison of Cygwin running on Win95 is really weak, because it's not the OS, but rather an emulator/environment on top of Windows.
Let's see our choices are different distributions of Linux or windows. This then leaves out Macs, *BSD, Solaris, or anything else. It may seem stupid on my part but I read the last option 3 times before I realized it wasn't "No windows whatsover". The person taking the survey limited the choices in such a way as to get the results they wanted, not to provide any accurate information.
I've always viewed my friends who are especially into Linux and ham radio (Rob Carlson -- radio callsign KC2AEI -- is one friend of mine who's fluent in both fields) as advanced hobbyists, the type of folks who might have scoured mall Radio Shacks for 6.5536 mhz crystals and dabbled in Heathkit
catelogues several decades ago. Tinkerers, in other words, passionate about tweaking the miniscule component constituents of their electronics to achieve a personal, customized result.
On the other hand, the similarities between radio "consumers" and Windows users are too tempting not to make. Unlike the Linux/ham radio enthusiasts, these folks operate their store-bought PCs/radio receivers as black boxes, strictly according to the design intended by the devices' manufacturer and rarely cracking open cases out of curiousity. Of course, I'm painting w/ a broad metaphorical brush here, lumping swaths of individuals into overly generalized categories.
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