Pickit 3 vs Arduino uno

[Rixen]

Most definitely. But this is what i do. I find a challenge and i learn.

It's all good but..

Facing a challenge and attempting projects, that are just too great or complicated for ones own level, can be an absolutely massive source of frustration.

I tried this with a project a while back, I only got it "kind-of" working, with a truck load of help from people on here ( ), we got part of it working, but I decided it was best to cut my losses there and revisit it later.

Anyway.. I just feel it's better and more satisfying to take baby steps and small projects that you can actually finish, than giant strides where you stumble and fall, to never get back up..

Just my 2c anyway

 

[Electric-T]

It's all good but..

Facing a challenge and attempting projects, that are just too great or complicated for ones own level, can be an absolutely massive source of frustration.

I tried this with a project a while back, I only got it "kind-of" working, with a truck load of help from people on here ( ), we got part of it working, but I decided it was best to cut my losses there and revisit it later.

Anyway.. I just feel it's better and more satisfying to take baby steps and small projects that you can actually finish, than giant strides where you stumble and fall, to never get back up..

Just my 2c anyway

I can appreciate that. I agree with the baby steps. Sometimes i have to go back to basics just to do something im good at haha. But i find it hard to give up on things. Even after a month ill think of something in the middle of the night and have to go try it.

 

[Irv]

Good stuff to think about...I built a computer awhile ago and loaded it with Ubuntu. I have been considering loading windows 7 as a boot option. I guess this is a good reason to do it.

Go right ahead I have both. Once or twice a year I boot Windows 7, which has NEVER been connected to the internet. Windows immediately tells me I need to install some (un-specified) updates. Now, exactly HOW does it know that without checking to see if the existing programs are the latest versions?

Ans: it doesn't. Microsoft just assumes that there will be an endless need for updates. A pretty safe assumption, knowing Microsoft's track record.

Linux, on the other hand, only offers to update if newer versions are available, tells me what they are, how important it is to do each update, and only loads those which I permit. Seems like a more sensible approach.

 

[Electric-T]

Exactly why i had to try it

 

[Doug3004]

Microsoft found that most ordinary people don't want to be bothered with updates, so they made it all automatic by default. You can do them manually however.

And the business/corporate versions still let you approve (or block) updates 100% manually--but some updates are only sequential. Which is why you can find corporate and industrial machinery still running Windows 2000 or XP, and they're not even running the last version with all the final updates.

~~~~~~~

I would also advise that if you set up a Linux PC, that you use the 32-bit version of Linux.
The reason is that there is still a lot of hardware that does not have 64-bit drivers in Linux. (so don't bother buying more than 4 gigs of RAM for your linux PC, for example... or any video card that has more than 4 gigs of ram...)

My main interest in Linux has been in cross-platform programming, but the lack of 64-bit drivers in Linux has (so far) always prevented it. The Windows platform has essentially moved entirely to 64-bits and you can't upgrade Linux to 64 bits cause there's still not a lot of drivers. So the only other option would be to downgrade Windows to 32-bits, and I don't like that either.

You can write Java programs that use the screen-keyboard-mouse and the hard drive, and that all works fine in both operating systems, if they are 32 or 64-bit--but if you want to use any other hardware, you will tend to run into the Linux=32bit/Windows=64-bit driver problem.

 

[(*steve*)]

I'm running 64 bit Linux on the desktop and have never had an issue with drivers. Having said that, I'm neither a gamer nor so pure that I won't load drivers with proprietry binary blobs.

I find that a bit of googling, or asking "does it run under Linux" is sufficient to avoid most problems. In any case, I've also had devices that worked under one version of Windows that were not supported under later versions, so it's not just a Linux thing.

Being able to run the occasional package under wine on Linux beats having to run a VM on Windows and gives you way better integration. "Does it run under wine" is a reasonable question for software without Linux versions or alternatives. Again, there are web sites to help you.

I'd recommend Linux mint for a casual user. It's friendly enough for a recently ex-windows operator, and it's Debian based (as is Ubuntu).

Linux has always handled large amounts of memory better than windows. 32 bit Linux doesn't have the same memory limit as 32 bit windows, with PAE it can address up to 64GB of RAM, but if you have more than 4GB, 64bit Linux makes sense (especially for large processes).

The big advantage of Linux over windows is that if you know what you're doing, anything can be fixed. With Windows, sometimes that's not the case.

The second big advantage is that Linux is not designed to get slower the longer you use it. Lots of people who run windows but a new pc because the old one was slow. I'm not sure if this is an intentional feature of Windows, but it sure is a real one, and one that's never been addressed. More knowledgeable users just reinstall Windows, but Microsoft have been doing their best to make that option harder and harder. It's a Merry-go-round that you really should get off. Either find a Windows expert who can set your machine up so that you can reinstall with less pain, or upgrade to another os next time windows gets slow or broken.