Linux compatibility

[Fusselpelusa]

Hi,
I am currently designing a new measurement computer with the fastest motherboard/processor from Intel (D975 ad E6850 or QX6850). However, these components are only compatible with at least mandriva 2007.

http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/products/linux/feature/319373.htm

Why can't NI/labview keep track of Major version changes in the supported linux distributions?

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/35D2B5E483A001A18625716B005BE464?OpenDocument

I understand that it is hard to always keep track of all kenel updates. But major changes should still be supported. What should I do now? I need a very fast computer for my counting card, need also to run linux, need to run labview8.2 (the version, my department has a license for), and need VISA 4.2, 488.2 and Ni-DAQ Base 2.1.
I would like to have a free OS, hence would rather go with Madriva than Red Hat (the newest RH 5 is anyway not supported any more). I also heard about all kinds of problems, to get labview running under Fedora Core. This is really frustrating. Why does labview not run under the newer Mandriva? I remember about 2-3 months ago, I saw an older labview/linux compatibility chart, where mandriva 2007 was still going strong. Something must have been detected that makes it now impossible to run labview under Mandriva 2007. Is there a patch planned or coming soon, or even out? I really would like to get the newest possible computer components and also run labview under linux. I personally do not care about the kernel version or even the linux distribution, as soon it is free and supports all software/hardware that I have to run.

Thanks for your opinions and I woudl appreciate if you could tell me what kind of linux OS you use with which M/B/processor / Labview version + experience.
Cheers
Thomas

[Wiebe@CARYA]

Have you tried to install Labview under Mandriva 2007, or did you not try
because it's not supported?

With all the diversity of *nix's, who is to deside what versions should be
supported?

I used Labview on CentOS (binary compatible with Red Hat, but free). This
was on a normal intel laptop, nothing special. We also installed the Runtime
engine under CentOS, with a Geode processor. Also no problem (with the
install, getting some fonts working was difficult).

The book LabVIEW Graphical Programming (Johnson & Jennings) describes
running LabVIEW Runtime engine on PeeWee Linux. If the runtime engine works,
I think installing the development environment has a high change of success
too. LabVIEW doesn't need much to run, since mpst parts of it are developed
by NI. E.g. it doesn't need a graphical toolkit, since it's has it's own so
the same toolkit can be used under windows.

If you'd search the forums, you'll notice that there are a lot of problems
with windows as well (probably much more then with Linux). That does scare
windows users to use LabVIEW, does it ; )

Regards,

Wiebe.

[Fusselpelusa]

Thanks for your reply,
I did have labview installed on Mandriva 2007, it ran for about 1 month and then problems started. First, one sensor was not been anymore (NI 6501), not sure though whether this was labview related or OS or hardware. Anyway after a remote reboot (computer was not accessible), it turned out that the root directory was damaged .... I do not blame LabVIEW for this, but given all the problems we had while installing (was not as straight forward as it is with Mandriva 2006, had to change some libraries, do not remember any more), I'd rather go with something that is supported, as indicated on the NI site. When we did install Mandriva 2007 it was still listed as supported platform .... clearly they detected something after this ...
I also installed labview under Fedora Core 6 and this is a real pain as you can see following some posts over the years regarding Fedora.
And no worries I will never have Windows running on a measurement computer. The data are too important to get screwed up 😉
Thomas