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19990727: SSEC support for DEC (cont.)

>From: Denise Laitsch <address@hidden>
>Organization: SSEC
>Keywords: 199907231605.KAA25738 Digital Unix hardware

Denise,

>Thank you for your answer on the Dec workstations. I'll let this topic
>drop now, since Unidata only has a minimal interest in Dec. Randy
>Alliss doesn't have the funds to pursue this either.

Too bad.  If SSEC would adopt the minor change I made to mcaget.for, then
DEC compatibility drops out with no effort.  You could then let prospective
users know that functionality comes with the "big boy" warranty: SSEC
does not support this platform, but other users are functioning, etc.
It might get new users interested enough to start using McIDAS and then
transition to one of the core supported OSes.

>Linux, however, is an interesting topic. Most of the interest in Linux
>seems to come from existing McIDAS sites rather than organizations who
>want to add McIDAS for the first time.

We do not see this in the university community.  Universities, being
generally very poor, are very interested in Linux for a variety of
uses (netCDF, LDM, GEMPAK, McIDAS, etc.).  Our main problem is that
Linux is not Linux is not Linux.  We inform our users that we support
RedHat Linux, but this does not deter them from using Debian, Slackware,
or ...

>Conversely, I'm hearing from
>prospective McIDAS users who want us to add Dec support.

Lots?  If so, I am suprised since the use of DEC platforms is not growing.
If anything, it is shrinking.

>I can no
>longer remember the last time I've had a new group contact me who wants
>to run Linux. I'm not sure what this means, Tom.

So, there really does seem to be a discernable difference between users
who go to SSEC for McIDAS and those that go to Unidata.

>Maybe NT and Solaris has solved some of these issues.

I think that the NT port may be significant.  I was chatting with Deb
Molenar yesterday (she is here attending an LDM workshop) about the
NT version of McIDAS.  She was quite impressed with its functionality.
I have one site that grabbed the SSEC NT distribution from me and gave
it a spin; he liked what he saw.  I have another site that will be getting
Interix (tm) some time in the fall, and he has expressed the desire to
try out the NT port.  I myself will be starting to play with the NT
distribution sometime in August (after the workshops and after I make
my 7.60 Unix release available).

>On the other hand, internally we have been discussing adding Linux
>support to the MUG this calendar year.

I am under the impression that one or more of the McIDAS programmers
is using Linux on a machine at home AND is running McIDAS on it.  Am
I dreaming?

>Yes, we've heard you. And I think the MUG is ripe for this.

Thanks.

>Yet again, it's a matter of finding
>funds to do this. The Unidata contract funds that I have for this year
>are pretty well tapped out. If you folks have sufficient interest and
>some year end funding to send this way, I would direct it toward Linux
>MUG support. (I also agree with you that the low cost workstations make
>this a plus.)

I will let Joanne ponder this one.

>Cheers,

Good talking to you...

Tom