Macs or PCs

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I disagree with this statement, considering the all pervasive nature of computers it is critical that we have the best OS possible, Windows simply is not good enough and is far from being the best available. This does not mean that Linux or Mac are as good as they can be but in terms of stability and security - two of the most critical aspects of a pc - they wipe the floor with Windows

Actually, in general we don't need the "best OS possible," we just need something that is good enough. For most people, Windows is good enough, especially for the typical home user who wants to browse the web, use Office, and play some games. For my purposes, Windows is unusable- Linux is the OS of scientific computing. For serious graphic artists, OS X is the standard. It all depends on your needs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_s ... #Computing

Microsoft has trouble with telling the time.

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Just another detail... I have just now set my profile to "GMT-1" - which is not correct. I am still on GMT. But it suffices, for another two weeks.

Then I can set my profile time zone to "GMT" - which will also be wrong, because I will then be on BST, but again, it will suffice.

This all happens again, in the autumn. After that, I can settle back into having GMT set, and it really being true.

- No OS is very good. I have argued until I'm blue in the face that in terms of stability, very recent versions of Windows may actually be ahead of Linux and for security, most people install a virus scanner and that's good enough for them. However I don't consider any OS "good enough" unless every single process is running in a VM, and there is currently no OS that does that.

- I never understood why OSX has to be the standard for graphic artists or Linux has to be the standard for scientific computing.

I can't answer to the graphics issue, but the tools I need to do my work are not available under Windows. I have to run Linux.

That's surprising, with MinGW and etc available these days.

Let me know if you can get XPP-Aut to run under Windows.

Haven't tried it myself, but it said at the bottom of this page:
XPP has been successfully compiled on a SPARC II under OpenLook, a SPARC 1.5 running generic X, a NeXT running X11R4, a DEC 5000, a PC using Linux or Windows, and SGI and an HP 730. It also runs under Win95/NT/98 if you have an X-Server.

Wow, the website for XPP is downright hideous - it's probably the worst I've seen so far this year. Not only is it hideous, but it doesn't describe what XPP is unless you dig for it. It's no wonder it's not easy to find a Windows port. I bet even the program itself is a pain in the ass.

Doesn't Matlab or Mathematica do what this program does?

But yes, there are instructions at http://www.math.pitt.edu/~bard/xpp/xpponw95.html - "on Win95" - ha ha.

It's a shame he didn't put more effort into this, or use one of the common GUI toolkits that are pervasive these days. He sounds like a great mathematician, and not a programmer at all.

At any rate it sounds like if you install Xming you should be able to run with it.

Matlab, Mathematica et al do not do what XPP does. XPP is an extremely powerful and useful program for analyzing dynamical systems, though yes I will admit the interface is a bit ugly. Anyways, go ahead and try to install it under Windows- it doesn't work. My entire class and the professor just spent a couple weeks trying to get it installed in Windows before he just packaged up a Xubuntu virtual machine for people to use. It installs quite painlessly under Mac or Linux, since they have better-supported native X servers.

Although I find it a little hard to believe, this is something I cannot comment on as I do not own a copy of Win 7, do you have some examples to back up this claim, I am genuinely interested.

Stability is a moot point for most home users in this day and age. Seldom, if ever, do any of my operating systems crash. Occasionally an individual app will come down, but that is hardly the fault of the operating system.

Security- nope, Windows is still worst on the market. The reasons are debatable. You can say it is because Unix-based systems are actually more robust, or you can attribute it to Windows being a more tempting target, but the fact remains that you are unequivocally safer if you avoid Windows.

I like to build my own stuff, so I prefer PCs. You can't really build a "mac", apart from putting mac os on a PC. As for OS, I use Windows 7 on occasion as well as Gentoo Linux pretty much the vast majority of the time.

1. Install Xming from http://sourceforge.net/projects/xming/
2. Install XPP from http://www.math.pitt.edu/~bard/bardware ... /winpp.zip and http://www.math.pitt.edu/~bard/bardware ... wppdoc.zip

3. Voila.

[img][650:513]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_A9av40lVPAo/S6Gj-el57_I/AAAAAAAAIss/JUA69-UURWw/winpp.png[/img]

I spent nearly 5 minutes on this.

Curious, that does seem to get something. Is that a newer Xming than Bard had been linking to on his site? That may have been the problem, if anyone was trying to use an outdated X server. For my classmates, it refused to start, and gave a fatal error to X. I hadn't bothered as I had "aptitude install xppaut" to get the program. In any case, I followed your example and I got it running... sort of. Some stuff in the program does not behave as it's supposed to, and the interface is completely different from (and significantly worse than) it is running under Mac or Linux.

I didn't bother trying the X server (which was not xming at all) linked on Bard's site. The condition of his site led me to believe it would be out of date and/or crap anyway. Xming is currently what most people use.

Sorry to hear the interface is all different. Maybe a fresh build from source would help, but I already invested my 5 minutes.