Any Linux users here?

[brianc]

A TRF search for 'linux' brings up only 22 hits- most incidental.

So far the only rocketry related Linux software I've been able to find
is-

- QCAD (a 2-D CAD system)

- rocketworkbench (design utilities)

- rocketsim (a simulation package - NOT up to RockSIM standards)

Anyone have others to add to the list?

Has anyone had any luck getting some of the popular Windows programs
running under wine? Got any pointers?

 

[cls]

hey Brian, sadly I had no luck getting any rocketry apps to work under WINE. actually they seem to limp along but when they try to draw anything they freak. it's probably something about my config because I've heard of at least 2 people getting rocksim to mostly work under WINE. long answer: dual boot. short answer: check out VMWare.

maybe time to write one in Java?

 

[Milo]

I've demo'd VMWare and it works great. You're still required to have a license to the OS you run under VMWare but it does work and works quite well.

I recently read about this great breakthrough by this Japanese company that was going to revolutionize running Windows on Linux. Unfortunately I can't find the article now. I thought it was on /. but I can't seem to find it.

 

[brianc]

VMware rocks! I have a licensed copy and I use it professionally.

I was simply trying to avoid the whole M$ thing.

 

[shockwaveriderz]

I used to be a beta tester for vmware back before it became a commercial product. I now use Microsoft's Virtual PC and or Virtual PC Server, (which I was also a beta tester for)I find it much simplier. And although they don't state they support Linux, numerous people have had no problem installing almost all flavours of Linux on it and it working fine.....

I myself have done: suse,mandrake and Redhat......

 

[brianc]

Well, I had a some spare time this evening... I was encouraged by
the Apogee site mentioning MacIntosh users could use a PC
emulator. I managed to get the RockSim 5 demo running[1] under wine.

Check out the attachment...



It did crash a few times, and I can't tell if that's due to the demo,
my config or a bigger issue.

Tim -- if you're lurking (BTW- welcome to TRF), I'm going to shoot off
an email, but I wonder if you'd offer a money-back trial? Also, have
you heard any success stories from customers that are using RockSim
on Linux?


[1] For those that need to know- I copied the RS dlls into the
fake_windows\Windows\System32 directory. I also had to
grab a copy of MSVCIRT.dll from the dll-files.com site...

 

[tnrocketman]

I really would like to have the latest copy of Knoppix for my daughter's PC, which is an old unstable Win98 system. I tried to download the darn ISO file but can't figure out how to burn it.

Can anyone help me out?

THX,

 

[apogee]

Originally posted by brianc

Tim -- if you're lurking (BTW- welcome to TRF), I'm going to shoot off
an email, but I wonder if you'd offer a money-back trial? Also, have
you heard any success stories from customers that are using RockSim
on Linux?

There is a free demo version of RockSim you can download from our web site at:

https://www.apogeerockets.com/rocksim_demo.asp

There are two problems preventing us from creating a LINUX version of RockSim. The first is money. We need to buy a "platform plug-in" from the third-party software vendor to support an additional OS. Right now, we bought a Mac plug-in. The extra plug-in to run Linux is about $2500 per year. That's a whole lot of Linux versions that we'd have to sell to justify the cost.

The other problem is we don't have a Linux box to even run the software on. So we can't even test it out to make sure it works, or to de-bug.

Finally, as you Linux users know, there is a bit more futzing around to get Linux up and running (from what I've heard). It isn't like Windows or Mac that you buy a LINUX computer and flip on the switch. Since there is more futzing, that means higher levels of Technical Support on our part (me). I don't know Linux, and since I use a Mac, I don't really have the urge to learn. Since I don't charge for Technical Support, I'd be working much hard for very little return.

While we haven't discounted LINUX completely, we are taking a wait-and-see approach. We want to really know the market before we take the plunge. It will cost us a ton of money, and we'd like to make that back somehow.

From what I hear, you can run UNIX-based software on a mac. So I suppose that means Linux software. You get the best of both worlds when you own a mac. ;-)

 

[n3tjm]

You are wrong about one thing, you can buy PC's with Linux already installed. It has also become a lot easier to install... making it almost Windows like install...

Your trial program is so old, I wouldn't even bother recommend people download it to try it out. Its kinda like telling people to try Windows 3.11 before buying XP. Ok, maybe the differences are not that quite drastic... Seriously, you should get a trial version of version 7; at least they can open the newer files.

What is the program written in anyway? C++? If so, what is the "plug in" for? The 3d renedering software you use? Linux may have 3D renedering software built in that you may be able to take avantage of... Not sure though...

 

[Milo]

I believe what Tim is referring to above is that there are several vendors pushing Linux and every one of their resulting installations is different. To get an idea of the trouble that Linux is... just try installing Oracle some time on Linux. The instructions are over 10 pages long and have caveats all through them such as if running Suse then do this, if running RedHat 8 then do this but if RedHat 9 then do this. Just to prep the machine to ensure that all the components are in place covers five pages.

The same Oracle installation for Windows however requires you to put the disk in the CD-ROM and follow the wizard.

While you may say that Windows has several versions I'd be willing to bet the RockSim runs on every one them without a hitch.

I agree with Tim on this one. Supporting RockSim on Linux would be expensive.

 

[brianc]

Originally posted by Apogee
There is a free demo version of RockSim you can download from our web site at:

https://www.apogeerockets.com/rocksim_demo.asp

Yup, and that's what I was able to get running under wine on Linux. However,
as several others have noted, this demo version is so old it makes a Linux/wine
compability test impossible for the current product.

I think you may have misinterpreted my question.... I'm not looking for you to
develop a native Linux version of RockSim - yet! I fully understand the
economics of software development and support (been in IT for over 25 years).

I'm also not looking for you to provide product/technical support for RockSim
under Linux. I think I can manage that- if I could test the current version.

All I'm looking for is the possibility of a money back option if I can't get V7
to operate to some level of acceptability under Linux. In exchange I'll
offer to document my configuration and setup steps so maybe you could capture
some untapped market share. HMMM. enough buzzwords here that this
thread threatens a jump to the Vendors section

I certainly understand if you can't/don't want to pursue this. But, I had to ask!

 

[solrules]

sorry to dig up the past....

Originally posted by tnrocketman
I really would like to have the latest copy of Knoppix for my daughter's PC, which is an old unstable Win98 system. I tried to download the darn ISO file but can't figure out how to burn it.

Can anyone help me out?

THX,

If you use Nero, just rename the .iso to .nrg and double click

I can get Rocksim 6 to open in WINE, but whenever I click on launch it crashes. Other than that it works fine . I am new to linux (using knoppix) and got rocksim to work with WINE out of the box (default config), I tried to copy the .DLL files to the fake windows system32 directory, but that did not help. WINE is not slow at all...maybe a half-second here or there, but otherwise is pretty speedy (as it is not an emulator).