This might create a ‘shit-storm’, hope not , i’m ready for it anyway.
I’d rather post it here, than in the post i picked it up, + i have the bonus of posting in the No Judgement Category.
Please do not keep the myth alive, in the Maslow Forum, that Linux needs to be learned.
You install it and use it, same as Win$ or Mac$$. (Myth ~12 years outdated.)
For MaslowCNC Win$ has the advantage that with the ‘portable version of GC’ you don’t have to worry about getting kivy or python installed and run. On Mac$$ you are slightly more challenged. For Linux it’s well documented and tested on various distros. Copy and Paste gets CG running.
My Friend Mohamed often comes with 2 of his kids, 9 and 12, and it took them less then 5 minutes to figure out that my browser is Firefox and how to start yoobooze and watch Shaun the Sheep. They were faster then me to turn the language to Arabic then i was to turn it back to english.
That Linux has tools under the hood, for example (awk), with a one line terminal command to move your entire g-code 200 to the left and 100 up, is nothing anyone has to learn. It’s good to have though… If you feel like it.
From the hardware side, you just need to take a look of how much of the resources are spent on calling home, and how much is left for you to get your job done. I’m not the first to analyse this with for example Wireshark.
MaslowCNC started open-source and cross (3) platforms and i would love to see it remain that way.
I think that what happened is people saw talk about using a Pi or having
webcontrol run in a linux VM and jumped to the conclusion that they would have
to learn linux to make it work.
even when I mentioned that the user would just be using a browser, at least one
person misinterpreted me to be saying that the browser would be running in linux
what we are talking about is to change so that instead of Ground Control being
the main way to run things, we are considering going to Web Control, which uses
your normal browser to have one or more client machines talk to Web Control
which talks to the arduino via USB.
Web Control may end up running in a linux docker container or VM, but normal
users would not need to interact with it except with a browser.
I love you brother but, let us agree to disagree. Using a computer is a skill. Skills are learned. Even walking. I can remember when computers were “New” and it was a big deal to give classes for people that never operated a PC to “learn to use a mouse.” We take basic computer skills as an axiom. I can tell you I encounter many people a week retiring and going in to CNC with woodworking skills but who have never operated a computer.
As cool as a Mac may be you don’t just use it either. All Computer systems require learning to use them. That said the current UI added to some Linux systems may even make them easier than then OS the UI is mimicking.
ie -
Funny foot note, or note. At one point in my life my right knee was rebuilt. They told me I would have to learn to walk again. I laughed and said I had been walking all my life. First chance I tried to get up and do what I had always known, followed by a good firm face plant when my left foot left my right behind. Humbled I got up and started to learn to walk again, then run, then Marathon. My point is there is nothing wrong in Learning. Don’t wait to live until you learn to live, or you might look back a life spent going no where. I’m going to say just about all of us here have some wood working skills, and we had to learn that too. I don’t think Linux is a dirty word. I think computer is. I think for whatever reason when you say you will be learning to operate a linux computer, people envision years of difficult work.
I find just about all work fun, it’s a work ethic I was taught. I learned it. The harder something is the more challenged I feel, the better it feels when I accomplish it. That’s just me.
In my late teens a group of young men I was a part of, were tasked with moving a large trunk about a half mile uphill. No joke. It was the work for two men at time. There were 2 groups the new guys and the established guys. The two groups argued endlessly about who should do it until I got sick of it, picked up the trunk and took off alone. I gained the respect of everyone in the group and made life long friends with the group leaders.
My point is work should be rewarding or you are doing it wrong. And no one works the way my friend @Gero does. He breaks things, bends things and makes straight things from several bent ones. He writes to everyone about it here.
If he can do all that, you can load a version of linux and learn to use it in not time at all!
Give it a whirl !
Ubuntu, Manjaro, Zorinos chose one and go. Ask us for help if you get stuck.
The title is a bit ambiguous.
Having been in IT for 25 some odd years I’m still learning windows. Function as a DBA for 12 years I’m still learning SQL. I’ve played with Linux for a little over 2 years and it does have a steep but manageable learning curve. It’s not exactly Unix (a year with AIX on an rs6000) and it’s certainly not like any of the MSDOS/IBMDOS/CPM/AtariDos stuff from back in the day.
In my opinion Linux does have to be learned and that’s a good thing. Remember when you could walk into a person’s home and instantly size them up by whether or not the VCR was flashing 12:00?
I’m no computer power user and I found that anyone that has used a Windoze computer can pick up Ubuntu or Mint in no time flat. Debian is less user friendly in my very limited experience with it, but the books I bought to learn more about Linux are using Debian. In my experience, if people want a computer that will be consistent and perform as they expect every time you can’t go wrong with Ubuntu. Windoze is just so plentiful that it is the “easiest” OS to just click away on.
this would not require Internet access, just local network access.
the browser would probably not run on the Pi as the expectation is that the Pi
has no monitor/keyboard (you could, but that’s probably not the common case)
any local computer, tablet, phone would connect to the local access point (which
could be the pi if you have nothing else) and you browse to the Pi.
note that when I say Pi above, this could be the ESP32 as well.
Nah, that’s an unscheduled manipulation , been there. My right knee won the 1 in 10000 award, a fungal infection, and is between revision surgeries. Haven’t quite got that relearning mastered yet, much to the delight (and new boat, not done on a Maslow ) of the DPT, and in a couple months it starts again. Happens when you’re as old as Univac or ENIAC
Have to say, for a retired (as of 8/1) paramedic the whole process is really interesting. Still rather observe than participate
If the retirement is a choice congratulations! I came off a 8ft aluminum ladder this week from about 5.5 ft and my left thigh is all the colors of the rainbow. I hope you recover quickly. Knowing what the process looks like doesn’t make it easier to go through. You will get there.
, i’m ready for it anyway.
? I’m the same age as Univac 1 and some days that feels ancient
, been there. My right knee won the 1 in 10000 award, a fungal infection, and is between revision surgeries. Haven’t quite got that relearning mastered yet, much to the delight (and new boat, not done on a Maslow 
) of the DPT, and in a couple months it starts again. Happens when you’re as old as Univac or ENIAC