erik malund wrote:
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Linux just like the Apple users seem to be very adamant that in every respect their beloved system is superior, which it may very well be in some respects.


Yes, it's more sophisticated. You need to learn how to make use of it. But then you know and things start getting much easier. Just like setting an SFR bit instead of applying an extra 18-input 8-output gate to the circuit...
Let me tell of some advantages I have a hard time not finding them under Windows. Let me name a few.
- Shell tab completion. (type beginning of a command, press tab, command is completed. If completion is ambigious, press tab again to see a list of available completions.
- Session history (commands you typed in yesterday are available with pressing the up arrow)
- Powerful scripting. (Compare some Linux startup scripts with autoexec.bat... You often need to automate things.
- Multitasking/Backgrounding (fg, bg, &, ctrl-z - no need to start 10 consoles if you have 10 programs running.)
- Ability to do and reach almost everything from command line (so everything is scriptable.) - no need to reach for a mouse and click "are you sure" when you are... Output/error log easy to create too - just use |tee instead of taking a screenshot of an obscure error requester...
- Flexible Scrollback(!!!)
- Consequent syntax. (no confusion where goes / and where )
- Meaningful manual (No advice like "Have you checked if the power cable is on?" or "Contact your system administrator".) and when there's no manual, there's still source to read to see how things are done. (nowadays I prefer the source to the manual...)
- Many more that got so deep in me that I don't even remember them, I just use them (and suddenly stumble, very surprised not finding them on Windows)


Once you've finished the hoop jumping phase (that is reluctancy on manufacturers side to make Linux tools and having to do it yourself) you're better off than on Windows - simply because it was designed by people who were to work on this themselves, not by people paid by hour and tied by deadline and marketing department orders (of course the marketing manager knows best how to build a GUI that is best suited for 8051 programming...?)



There's the Cygnus package, but that's not so great because it creates a lot of linux-alike environment not fully compatibiule with Windows API. Such a "line" won't happen, not because there's no such need but because this would endanger Microsoft monopoly. (they use a lot of dirty tricks to keep customers as far away from other OSes as possible - up to degree of purposedly leaving things broken and incompatibile where making them go along with the other OS would be trivial.
Besides, the easiest, most granted way to run Linux programs from Windows is ssh/telnet to a Linux box...