Smooth Steppers are finally available in UK !

[Jonathan]

Just spoke to Art on the phone today.

I'm glad to hear it. I'd love to hear his thoughts on the subject.

"Sorry to be pedantic, but if you're wanting to compare Mach to LinuxCNC, you won't be needing a SS ;)

Sorry to be pedantic, but this thread started with a post about SS so that's what I'm comparing. Here's a modified version of the list for Mach alone:

Mach:
Pros: Familiar, DIY Standard.
Cons: Doesn't support some obscure machines/extras.
Cost: Windows >£50, Mach3 >£50
What you have to lose if you want to switch to the alternative: A few hours of your time, >£100.

you need to stop making assumptions about the original posters requirements/decisions.

What assumptions have I wrongly made?

Plus what's the chances of any computer not coming with Windows?

Mach3 runs on windows 2000 and windows XP. Both are in steady decline with windows vista, 7 and 8 being forced out by Microsoft. It takes 20 minutes to make a bootable pendrive and 30 minutes to install linuxCNC, even on slower computers. I refuse to believe that this should make any sort of difference. The computer gives you clear and simple instructions on what to do, I apologise for not understanding how this poses a problem for so many people. Ubuntu is made to be incredibly user friendly and simple (it's marketed at Apple users amongst others).

Now to give a real example. I'm needing a way to program some ATmega chips.

I'm glad you brought this up. A friend of mine wanted to get into PIC programming just last week. I recommended he buy a PicKit2 clone from ebay. It is digitally identical to Microchip's pickit2 and costs half as much. It interfaces with MPLAB IDE just like a genuine one would do and has freeware firmware updates to interface with Arduinos, that you can download and install easily. I'd pick that over a genuine programmer any day and yes, I do own a genuine PicKit2 for comparison.

I own a gecko 540 driven cnc Taig with a trunnion table.......and I think this is pretty typical...

I wouldn't say a trunnion table is typical for us! I'm sorry I would have a look for a suitable file for you, I'd be surprised if one doesn't exist by now but I don't have the time because I have exams. If you're still interested I'll have a look afterwards. Have you tried asking on the forums for some help on modifying an existing one?