Mach3 vs Mach4

[i2i]

maybe this thread could be compared to the Betamax versus vhs debate many years ago. Betamax being the vastly superior system never caught on, maybe because vhs got a foothold in the marketplace first.
Now the amount of windows users (yes it is m/soft) is massive compared to Linux (it's not m/soft), so the average guy/girl who wants to use a cnc machine may well be familiar to windows and probably even have a pc with windows already on it.
So what would be his or her best option.?

[birchy]

the average guy/girl who wants to use a cnc machine may well be familiar to windows and probably even have a pc with windows already on it.
So what would be his or her best option.?

99% of the time, they will choose Windows because they are already familiar with it. People don't like change, no matter how easy or difficult it may be. That's why M$ have done so well...

[birchy]

Now scroll down and there are 52 versions of Linux.

Yeah, I often laugh at that because the overwhelming choices puts off potential newbies. Lots of choice is great but it doesn't help the inexperienced.

Generally speaking, a bootable CD or DVD is the easiest. You download the O.S. as an ISO file and burn it to disk. Boot the PC from the CD/DVD and job's a good'un.

Forgive my ignorance, I don't know what a "hobber" is (EDIT: duhhh - just realised you mean a gear hobber)....If you're installing LinuxCNC, then you'll want their CD/DVD as it is a complete O.S. and software package. For anything else, Linux Mint is the way to go. It's newbie friendly and works straight out of the box. No need to install security packages (Norton, etc), Flash plugins, Java plugins, movie codecs, MS Office, etc..they're all pre-installed.

EDIT:
For your purposes, I think your friend is suggesting you install UNetbootin (which is the software used to create bootable USB sticks) BUT use the LinuxCNC ISO rather than one of those 52 choices! UNetbootin has an option for "Diskimage", so you'd need to choose that and point it at your downloaded image.

[John S]

Yeah, I often laugh at that because the overwhelming choices puts off potential newbies. Lots of choice is great but it doesn't help the inexperienced.

Birchy,
You have hit the nail on the head, anyone moving from windows / mach3 will be inexperienced and after reading that page he'll also be confused

Is it any wonder they just give up ?

Seriously I'm not knocking it [ Linux ] but after all this time and with the amount of join man hours on the program you would thing that more time had been spent attracting new users instead of patting each other on the back.

Many low end motion packages have that amateurish appearance to them.
M3 in default screen looks like the flight deck of a 747
Most of the USB controllers look very similar like they have all been done in MS Paint
Linux looks like their screen is just an afterthought, looking neither amateurish or professional.

M3 for instance has different screens for lathe and mill to match the machine.