Linux usage

[doobs]

We are an automation and robotics specialist company that has chosen
LabVIEW as our primary development language.

We are now looking at other methods of control (embedded systems, etc)
and are wondering out loud how many out there are using LabVIEW under
Linux? In doing some research the embedded Linux market seems to be
gaining critical mass, and if we could leverage our LabVIEW expertise
into embedded Linux applications this would be a definite plus.

If you are using LabVIEW under Linux, what are your opinions? We
discussed this extensively at NI Week last year and while NI's
official stance is LabVIEW for Linux is a fully developed product,
several of the NI development engineers we asked felt that it was
still a work in progress.

One
of the issues is the price to buy another copy of LabVIEW. The
$4K for the PDS to make executables is fairly steep, but the
development setup for embedded NT (which was our other choice) is
about the same price. So we pay for the OS or we pay for the
development software. I would rather pay NI the money than MS, but
that is personal preference. A discount for copies of LabVIEW to run
on another OS would be greatly appreciated (hint, hint).

I guess what I am trying to start here is a dialog about the viability
of LabVIEW under Linux. Gary Johnson/Richard Jennings have indicated
that the upcoming edition to "LabVIEW Graphical Programming" will have
extended coverage of an Embedded Linux application and NIWeek seems to
be heavy with Linux topics, so maybe this is a good time to start a
dialog.
===========================================================================
Christopher Dubea Phone: (985) 847-2280
Vice President of Engineering Fax: (985) 847-2282
Moving Parts L.L.C. emai
l: cdubea@movingpart.com
P. O. Box 6117 URL: http://www.movingpart.com
Slidell, LA 70469-6117

[Jim_Kring]

If you compile an executable with your PDS you don't have to pay $4k for each system that you sell, right? It would then be a one time per developer cost for your company.

I guess that the answer to the viability of LV for Linux question is - "Is NI going to keep it alive?" It doesn't seem like it will be a huge problem since there is already a lot of Unix support. I still think that LabVIEW will see excellent support for Windows first and then for all of the other support platforms second, if there is motivation. I am not sure if NI has enough resources to support all of the hardware on all of these platforms. Making LabVIEW work well in another operating system is easy. Supporting all of the Hardware is difficult. LabVIEW is a way for NI to sell hardware.
They will spend time developing for those platforms where hardware sales are plentiful. At least until LabVIEW is recognized, or acknowledged, as being full-featured software development environment.

-Jim