Some 2017 small Windows 10 Pcs ideal for DIY CNCs

[Desertboy]

Just "upgraded" to Windows 10 when I got a new pc it's truly dreadful. I almost miss OSX it's that bad! Having no Microphone or webcam in this pc makes me a lot more comfortable with it.

If it wasn't for Fusion I'd have Linux on this machine either Ubuntu or Fedora.

The best solution for me is 2 pc's one cheap to run pc with linux for day to day use and 1 for Fusion, from what I read you only need to sync occasionally to fusion for it to work the pc I have now has no wifi so easy to unplug the ethernet to ensure it's offline.

I'm guessing windows 10 doesn't play so nice with Parallel ports and breakout boards, I'm going the Linuxcnc route because at least it works today and will work in 5 years from now unlike winblows which is going to need dedicated motion controller.

[Ger21]

I'm guessing windows 10 doesn't play so nice with Parallel ports and breakout boards

If you want to use Mach3/4 with a parallel port, Win7 32 bit is the last OS they will work on.

[Boyan Silyavski]

If you want to use Mach3/4 with a parallel port, Win7 32 bit is the last OS they will work on.

Another nail in Mach3/4 coffin

[magicniner]

Another nail in Mach3/4 coffin

You say that but people are still doing perfectly good work running Mach3 on Windows 98 so the hammer is falling very, very, very, very slowly on those particular nails ;-)
The latest incumbent really screwed the pooch by ditching Mach3 development and support but given their performance probably best they left it alone rather than bugger it up further :D

- Nick

[Boyan Silyavski]

What i am saying is before some years when had my first CNC i had Mach3 "pirate" edition downloaded from torrent. Then even if i don't needed i payed the money for the original version, just to help the product. Because I understood then the value of the program in terms of what it brings to the table.

Nowadays? I don't think so. Plus have in mind each cheap chinese board ships with pirated Mach3. If they were any clever they would have continued to develop the product, maybe even lower the price to under 100 and continue to make money by offering better product.

if i was starting with first machine today, the only thing that could make me purchase Mach4 is a specific machine/ plasma or similar/ that could be made to work otherwise due to special plugin or similar.



But my point here in this thread was to show some new nice All in one Pcs with touchscreen and all . Which nowadays can be very cheap. And are nice to play with. Not some old buggers running on windows 98. I like to enjoy using nice things, not some rusty boxes. Not that i dont have one or 2 of them still.

[magicniner]

And are nice to play with.

For me Windows 10 spoils the deal, it's one of their "First version's a complete dog" operating systems and there's no sign of OSR2, SE, SP1 or whatever term they will use for "Ooh look, we've fixed it now" this time around.

Serious business isn't mass-adopting 10 yet and Microsoft have had to extend support for Windows 7 (as 8 is a dog too from a business perspective) because even their major vendors have complained about the negative impact of such early retirement of support for Windows 7 on their big customers.

Fingers crossed Microsoft will sort it out, but on the bright side their constant cock-ups are resulting in increased uptake of open source and perhaps serious open source CAD/CAM will experience the same kind of surge that 3D printing software has seen, although uptake of "free until you are committed and then we decide to shaft you" packages such as Autodesk is reducing the chance of this.

[m_c]

I think the bigger reason businesses aren't updating OS's, is they simply don't need to. Why update something that works?

I'd say 7 was probably the last version where you gained any real benefit from updating. I work for a major company who can run whatever MS software they want, and things now only get updated when the hardware is replaced, and as a company, hardware is now ran until it breaks or needs upgraded. There's no X years renewal policy, as for over 90% of employees, even 10 year old hardware still runs perfectly well enough. However all computers are locked down so you can't install anything you're not meant to, which means they don't get bogged down with rubbish.

At work I've personally got access to a Win7 desktop, and a Win8 tablet. If either were to break today and be replaced with new, they'd come with Win10. When I get a new computer, I simply log in, and connect to the company intranet, then all my required programs get downloaded, installed and configured, and my personal files get copied out the cloud, with no input from me.