I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message
...
I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

...Jim Thompson

I always wanted to try this....
http://www.colinux.org/

There are other options though.

Cheers

Martin Riddle wrote:
"Jim Thompson" wrote in message
...
I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

...Jim Thompson

I always wanted to try this....
http://www.colinux.org/

There are other options though.

Cheers


Often the best way is to install Cygwin and recompile the *nix app. I'm
a huge Cygwin fan.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs.

On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:00:29 -0400, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

Martin Riddle wrote:
"Jim Thompson" wrote in message
...
I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

...Jim Thompson

I always wanted to try this....
http://www.colinux.org/

There are other options though.

Cheers


Often the best way is to install Cygwin and recompile the *nix app. I'm
a huge Cygwin fan.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs.

Cadence Virtuoso ?:-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

"Jim Thompson" wrote in
message ...
I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

...Jim Thompson

Possible. As people have mentioned. But can you afford the performance hit
for a CAD Program of going through additional layers like that?

A separate Linux box would be pretty cheap nowadays.

Robert H.

"Jim Thompson" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave


Hello Jim,

I have read you want run Virtuoso. In this case you have only one chance.
Run it with their recommended version of Redhat Linux. Either install it
parallel to WIN on your PC or on another PC.

Best regards,
Helmut

On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:48:15 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

...Jim Thompson

Do like the rest of us smart ones, run a linux box and a windows box.
Dont try to cross the boundaries else you will just waste lots of
time, but i guess you are retired so this might be ok.

Anyhow, windows sucks, so does linux and MacOs is even worse so you
are ****ed in every direction.

On Thu, 6 Sep 2007 10:19:41 +0200, "Helmut Sennewald"
wrote:

"Jim Thompson" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave


Hello Jim,

I have read you want run Virtuoso. In this case you have only one chance.
Run it with their recommended version of Redhat Linux. Either install it
parallel to WIN on your PC or on another PC.

Best regards,
Helmut


That's what I'm concluding too. I'm currently running 3 PC's plus my
laptop off of one KVM... so what's one more?

I have clients clamoring for Cadence documentation. I'm actually
running Virtuoso via a VPN to a client's site right now. It's
half-fast ;-) Just enough delay to be a pain.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

On Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:50:19 +1000, The Real Andy
wrote:

On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:48:15 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

...Jim Thompson

Do like the rest of us smart ones, run a linux box and a windows box.
Dont try to cross the boundaries else you will just waste lots of
time, but i guess you are retired so this might be ok.

Yep. I'm so retired I'm working 60 hour weeks again ;-)


Anyhow, windows sucks, so does linux and MacOs is even worse so you
are ****ed in every direction.

:-(

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

"The Real Andy" wrote in message
...
Anyhow, windows sucks, so does linux and MacOs is even worse so you
are ****ed in every direction.

Andy, if you let us know where you've been putting in 20-hour days programming
we'll take up a fund to send you the best pizza in your town. :-)

On Thu, 6 Sep 2007 10:50:15 -0700, "Joel Kolstad"
wrote:

"The Real Andy" wrote in message
.. .
Anyhow, windows sucks, so does linux and MacOs is even worse so you
are ****ed in every direction.

Andy, if you let us know where you've been putting in 20-hour days programming
we'll take up a fund to send you the best pizza in your town. :-)


That's the great thing about being a consultant and charging
ridiculous rates, it cost the client so much money the refuse to let
you work more than 8 hours a day, 5 days a week And when you are
done for the day you can go off to the pub and get drunk. Sigh, one
pub day a week is just not enough, i need to take up full time
drinking again.....

"The Real Andy" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:48:15 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

...Jim Thompson

Do like the rest of us smart ones, run a linux box and a windows box.
Dont try to cross the boundaries else you will just waste lots of
time, but i guess you are retired so this might be ok.

Anyhow, windows sucks, so does linux and MacOs is even worse so you
are ****ed in every direction.

Windows is getting much worse - take a look at vista's nastiness and revenue
generators, WGA, DRM, crappy bloated code, incompatibilities, crashes,
insane hardware requirements, obsoleted hardware, now they are preventing
valid XP licenses from being activated, etc. Office 2007 is nasty, OOXML,
............

Mac's os, well, what can I say, it just works and is very stable. Has some
DRM crap, but nothing like MS. The OS's are backwards compatible to older
machines, and generally makes them run faster.

Linux is actually not that bad, if only there was some more specialized
software for it (EDA, CAD, etc)

There is also:

- eComStation (OS/2), which looks interesting, and I keep meaning to try
that live CD image I downloaded. Would have some specialized software
availability problems
- React OS - an XP clone without the MS crap, under development
- RISCOS - requires a arm based computer, well made OS, and the computers
draw only a couple of watts, but not much software
- Solaris I think released an open source os
- some stuff like freeBSD, QNX, etc

On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 05:04:47 GMT, "Jeff L"
wrote:


"The Real Andy" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:48:15 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

...Jim Thompson

Do like the rest of us smart ones, run a linux box and a windows box.
Dont try to cross the boundaries else you will just waste lots of
time, but i guess you are retired so this might be ok.

Anyhow, windows sucks, so does linux and MacOs is even worse so you
are ****ed in every direction.

Windows is getting much worse - take a look at vista's nastiness and revenue
generators, WGA, DRM, crappy bloated code, incompatibilities, crashes,
insane hardware requirements, obsoleted hardware, now they are preventing
valid XP licenses from being activated, etc. Office 2007 is nasty, OOXML,

Get your facts right before you start crapping on.

...........

Mac's os, well, what can I say, it just works and is very stable. Has some
DRM crap, but nothing like MS. The OS's are backwards compatible to older
machines, and generally makes them run faster.

I think Mac is actually the worst of the lot


Linux is actually not that bad, if only there was some more specialized
software for it (EDA, CAD, etc)

Linux sits somewhere between Windows and Mac. I could tell you a story
about how much ****ing around it took me to get Linux working just
recently but its not worth it.

There is also:

- eComStation (OS/2), which looks interesting, and I keep meaning to try
that live CD image I downloaded. Would have some specialized software
availability problems
- React OS - an XP clone without the MS crap, under development
- RISCOS - requires a arm based computer, well made OS, and the computers
draw only a couple of watts, but not much software
- Solaris I think released an open source os
- some stuff like freeBSD, QNX, etc

Tell me more when they are actually useful for anything other than
training uni students and when I can install them on my PC that i buy
new for next to nothing at the local PC **** shop.

"The Real Andy" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 05:04:47 GMT, "Jeff L"
wrote:


"The Real Andy" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:48:15 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

...Jim Thompson

Do like the rest of us smart ones, run a linux box and a windows box.
Dont try to cross the boundaries else you will just waste lots of
time, but i guess you are retired so this might be ok.

Anyhow, windows sucks, so does linux and MacOs is even worse so you
are ****ed in every direction.

Windows is getting much worse - take a look at vista's nastiness and
revenue
generators, WGA, DRM, crappy bloated code, incompatibilities, crashes,
insane hardware requirements, obsoleted hardware, now they are preventing
valid XP licenses from being activated, etc. Office 2007 is nasty, OOXML,

Get your facts right before you start crapping on.

Have you looked at Vista? The new DRM crap? The WGA? Hardly any old programs
run on it, drivers don't exist. I was lucky enough to be loaned a fairly
high end almost brand new trial laptop (2 GB ram, dual core, widescreen)
from a friend that works for one of the big business class PC vendors about
2 months ago. After waiting for about 2.5 hours for the recovery
installation process to reinstall Vista, so I would have a fresh install to
test, simple web browsing was slow, it took about 15 minutes to install
adobe reader, watching a DVD kept producing a black screen for a second or
two every few minutes, etc. The computer kept having programs crash. The
normal windows folders are not where they used to be and there are a lot
more of them now. The battery life is much shortened due to the constant
processor and hard drive activity for the encryption. There is a bug with
USB hardware and mass storage devices. The Wi Fi won't remain connected.When
I first turned it on, it looked nice, and I started to think that it's not
that bad, it may even be kinda nice, until about 5 minutes of use later. My
same brand name laptop (IBM A22P) from 6 years ago running win 2k, 1000 MHz
P3, and only 128 Mb ram runs circles around it, and the battery still lasts
3 to 5 hours unless watching a movie, since the internal impendence of the
cells is starting to increase a lot (Li ION cells oxidize internally).

Did I mention anything about viruses and other security vulnerabilities? Or
the WGA server that crashed recently, locking people from their legitly
registered operating systems for hours.

Windows 2000 was the last operating system that MS made that was any good,
and is what I still run on about half a dozen computers today. Once that
operating system is no longer useful, I will move on to something else as I
will not be buying any more MS product. I already have Red Hat running on
one computer at work, am setting up a opensuze server, and will be trying
Ubuntu or variant on a desktop in the next month or two. I also have several
computers doing dedicated things, and they are running their original dos
installations from as early as 1993.

I'll also be looking at eCS.


...........

Mac's os, well, what can I say, it just works and is very stable. Has
some
DRM crap, but nothing like MS. The OS's are backwards compatible to older
machines, and generally makes them run faster.

I think Mac is actually the worst of the lot


Although I don't like Mac's, they do "just work". You can sit down and just
get to work and not have a million other problems getting in the way. Why do
you think they are worse?



Linux is actually not that bad, if only there was some more specialized
software for it (EDA, CAD, etc)

Linux sits somewhere between Windows and Mac. I could tell you a story
about how much ****ing around it took me to get Linux working just
recently but its not worth it.

Linux can be a bit of a pain, however an older version of Xandros installed
on my laptop without issue except for a cheap wireless card which did not
have a Linux driver, Redhat installed correctly on several computers, I had
one fail eventually with random lock ups (I think the MB was dyeing), and in
another case, a conflict with a network card and video card, in which simply
swapping the vid card fixed it. Ubuntu seems to work quite well for most
people, and Dell, HP and Lenevo are now starting or contemplating to offer
Linux. Windows has it's share of install problems also. It took several
months (we were busy with other stuff) to figure out why a newly built
computer would not install all the way - it turns out the ram was not
compatable but worked for the most part. Now we can't buy compatable ram.
Then there's the SATA driver issue that Linux had no problems with, but Win
2K puked on it, with the provided drivers.


There is also:

- eComStation (OS/2), which looks interesting, and I keep meaning to try
that live CD image I downloaded. Would have some specialized software
availability problems
- React OS - an XP clone without the MS crap, under development
- RISCOS - requires a arm based computer, well made OS, and the computers
draw only a couple of watts, but not much software
- Solaris I think released an open source os
- some stuff like freeBSD, QNX, etc

Tell me more when they are actually useful for anything other than
training uni students and when I can install them on my PC that i buy
new for next to nothing at the local PC **** shop.

Concidering a PC's typical use is:
- Browsing the internet
- Email/newsgrops
- PDF viewing
- Text and Word documets
- Spread sheets
- Sometimes presintations and editing them
- Picture editing (maybe only screen shots)
- Media playing (less so for business computers)
- Media editing (less popular)
- HTML editing
- Programming utilities and example code (for advanced users)
- Specialized software like database accsess
- Accounting software
- CAD Programs


Home computers:
- Gaming
- Downloading
-IM

So, looking at that, the:
-----------------------
- Internet problem is solved with many browsers, some like Opera and Fire
Fox run on many platforms. Internet explorer is a virus waiting to happen.
Firefox works good and Opera is better, in my opinion.
- For Email, Thunderbird is OK, but a memory hog and after the mail store
file approaches 1 GB, it stops working. I'm trying Evolution soon, and it
runs under Windows and Linux.
- There are a lot of PDF viewers - Foxit works well, but does not support
some menus, but it prints thing that adobe won't. Cutepdf works well at
generating pdf's. Linux has some useful ones, hopefully Foxit will offer a
Linux version
- Linux has some great text editors, and open office is useful for 99.x% of
the stuff we do, and sometimes even better. The spell checker is not as good
as MS office, and some advanced excel features are not the same / don't work
- The Gimp, open source seems to work great as a replacement for Photoshop
- All have their own programming utilities, some being really good.
- Media playing does not seem to be a problem with Linux, unlike windows
which keeps removing codec's when updated.
- I would imagine there are reasonable media editing programs available for
other OS's along with something decent to edit webpage's
- For accounting, and data bases, this is often specialized software, often
custom written for larger companies. The better stuff runs on something
other then windows.
- For the ME/EE, CAD programs are a bit of a problem, but software vendors
are starting to recognize this. Our main (and expensive) CAM program runs on
Linux. There are also some open source projects that could use some refining
(gEDA)
- For downloading, there are many other options for home computers that are
not windows based.
- IM - there are many instant messaging programs, often open source, and
would run all brands of IM services on the same program.
- Video Gaming is the real big disadvantage, but with business, video games
don't belong there unless your business is gaming. I also don't play video
games, unless you consider the odd Vegas solitaire or Free cell.

So other then gaming and some very specialized software and some business
apps, most flavors of Linux would work fine for most people.
ECS would also be a possibility, and RISCOS is interesting, and uses a cheap
ARM processor that boots in seconds and uses little power.

Apparently, some of the other operating systems are much easier to program
for (excluding the visual studio mess)

"Jim Thompson" skrev i en
meddelelse ...
I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

Cadence Virtuoso - Expensive name like that sounds like it wants Solaris!

Your best bet might be to get Solaris 10 off SUN Microsystems, install
Solaris on an x86/x64 (which would be Athlon64 or Intel equivalent) PC and
use that: It happens to be Gratis (not free ;-)
http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/get.jsp .

If Cadence Virtuoso is for the SPARC architecture you might be screwed ...
err ... have to rent a real SUN box.

A.F.A.I.K Linux has an emulation layer for running Solaris binaries - but,
maybe, it is not used often enough to find all bugs ;-) Going that way you
should at least get one of the big distros, SUSE f.ex. I would try Solaris
first, though.

On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 18:01:35 GMT, "Jeff L"
wrote:


"The Real Andy" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 05:04:47 GMT, "Jeff L"
wrote:


"The Real Andy" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:48:15 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

I know there are shells to allow running a Windows program in Unix.

Is there like-wise a method to run a Unix-based program in Windows?

...Jim Thompson

Do like the rest of us smart ones, run a linux box and a windows box.
Dont try to cross the boundaries else you will just waste lots of
time, but i guess you are retired so this might be ok.

Anyhow, windows sucks, so does linux and MacOs is even worse so you
are ****ed in every direction.

Windows is getting much worse - take a look at vista's nastiness and
revenue
generators, WGA, DRM, crappy bloated code, incompatibilities, crashes,
insane hardware requirements, obsoleted hardware, now they are preventing
valid XP licenses from being activated, etc. Office 2007 is nasty, OOXML,

Get your facts right before you start crapping on.

Have you looked at Vista? The new DRM crap? The WGA? Hardly any old programs

Running this PC on Vista, and just bough a laptop with vista. YEs I
have looked at vista.

run on it, drivers don't exist. I was lucky enough to be loaned a fairly
high end almost brand new trial laptop (2 GB ram, dual core, widescreen)
from a friend that works for one of the big business class PC vendors about
2 months ago. After waiting for about 2.5 hours for the recovery
installation process to reinstall Vista, so I would have a fresh install to
test, simple web browsing was slow, it took about 15 minutes to install
adobe reader, watching a DVD kept producing a black screen for a second or
two every few minutes, etc. The computer kept having programs crash. The
normal windows folders are not where they used to be and there are a lot
more of them now. The battery life is much shortened due to the constant
processor and hard drive activity for the encryption. There is a bug with
USB hardware and mass storage devices. The Wi Fi won't remain connected.When
I first turned it on, it looked nice, and I started to think that it's not
that bad, it may even be kinda nice, until about 5 minutes of use later. My
same brand name laptop (IBM A22P) from 6 years ago running win 2k, 1000 MHz
P3, and only 128 Mb ram runs circles around it, and the battery still lasts
3 to 5 hours unless watching a movie, since the internal impendence of the
cells is starting to increase a lot (Li ION cells oxidize internally).

Did I mention anything about viruses and other security vulnerabilities? Or
the WGA server that crashed recently, locking people from their legitly
registered operating systems for hours.

Windows 2000 was the last operating system that MS made that was any good,
and is what I still run on about half a dozen computers today. Once that
operating system is no longer useful, I will move on to something else as I
will not be buying any more MS product. I already have Red Hat running on
one computer at work, am setting up a opensuze server, and will be trying
Ubuntu or variant on a desktop in the next month or two. I also have several
computers doing dedicated things, and they are running their original dos
installations from as early as 1993.

I'll also be looking at eCS.


...........

Mac's os, well, what can I say, it just works and is very stable. Has
some
DRM crap, but nothing like MS. The OS's are backwards compatible to older
machines, and generally makes them run faster.

I think Mac is actually the worst of the lot


Although I don't like Mac's, they do "just work". You can sit down and just
get to work and not have a million other problems getting in the way. Why do
you think they are worse?



Linux is actually not that bad, if only there was some more specialized
software for it (EDA, CAD, etc)

Linux sits somewhere between Windows and Mac. I could tell you a story
about how much ****ing around it took me to get Linux working just
recently but its not worth it.

Linux can be a bit of a pain, however an older version of Xandros installed
on my laptop without issue except for a cheap wireless card which did not
have a Linux driver, Redhat installed correctly on several computers, I had
one fail eventually with random lock ups (I think the MB was dyeing), and in
another case, a conflict with a network card and video card, in which simply
swapping the vid card fixed it. Ubuntu seems to work quite well for most
people, and Dell, HP and Lenevo are now starting or contemplating to offer
Linux. Windows has it's share of install problems also. It took several
months (we were busy with other stuff) to figure out why a newly built
computer would not install all the way - it turns out the ram was not
compatable but worked for the most part. Now we can't buy compatable ram.
Then there's the SATA driver issue that Linux had no problems with, but Win
2K puked on it, with the provided drivers.


There is also:

- eComStation (OS/2), which looks interesting, and I keep meaning to try
that live CD image I downloaded. Would have some specialized software
availability problems
- React OS - an XP clone without the MS crap, under development
- RISCOS - requires a arm based computer, well made OS, and the computers
draw only a couple of watts, but not much software
- Solaris I think released an open source os
- some stuff like freeBSD, QNX, etc

Tell me more when they are actually useful for anything other than
training uni students and when I can install them on my PC that i buy
new for next to nothing at the local PC **** shop.

Concidering a PC's typical use is:
- Browsing the internet
- Email/newsgrops
- PDF viewing
- Text and Word documets
- Spread sheets
- Sometimes presintations and editing them
- Picture editing (maybe only screen shots)
- Media playing (less so for business computers)
- Media editing (less popular)
- HTML editing
- Programming utilities and example code (for advanced users)
- Specialized software like database accsess
- Accounting software
- CAD Programs


Home computers:
- Gaming
- Downloading
-IM

So, looking at that, the:
-----------------------
- Internet problem is solved with many browsers, some like Opera and Fire
Fox run on many platforms. Internet explorer is a virus waiting to happen.
Firefox works good and Opera is better, in my opinion.
- For Email, Thunderbird is OK, but a memory hog and after the mail store
file approaches 1 GB, it stops working. I'm trying Evolution soon, and it
runs under Windows and Linux.
- There are a lot of PDF viewers - Foxit works well, but does not support
some menus, but it prints thing that adobe won't. Cutepdf works well at
generating pdf's. Linux has some useful ones, hopefully Foxit will offer a
Linux version
- Linux has some great text editors, and open office is useful for 99.x% of
the stuff we do, and sometimes even better. The spell checker is not as good
as MS office, and some advanced excel features are not the same / don't work
- The Gimp, open source seems to work great as a replacement for Photoshop
- All have their own programming utilities, some being really good.
- Media playing does not seem to be a problem with Linux, unlike windows
which keeps removing codec's when updated.
- I would imagine there are reasonable media editing programs available for
other OS's along with something decent to edit webpage's
- For accounting, and data bases, this is often specialized software, often
custom written for larger companies. The better stuff runs on something
other then windows.
- For the ME/EE, CAD programs are a bit of a problem, but software vendors
are starting to recognize this. Our main (and expensive) CAM program runs on
Linux. There are also some open source projects that could use some refining
(gEDA)
- For downloading, there are many other options for home computers that are
not windows based.
- IM - there are many instant messaging programs, often open source, and
would run all brands of IM services on the same program.
- Video Gaming is the real big disadvantage, but with business, video games
don't belong there unless your business is gaming. I also don't play video
games, unless you consider the odd Vegas solitaire or Free cell.

So other then gaming and some very specialized software and some business
apps, most flavors of Linux would work fine for most people.
ECS would also be a possibility, and RISCOS is interesting, and uses a cheap
ARM processor that boots in seconds and uses little power.

Apparently, some of the other operating systems are much easier to program
for (excluding the visual studio mess)