OS used in a electronics development setting

[bsccara]

I'm currently developing a tool for electronics development work to be controlled by a computer. In order to better allocate development resources I'd like to ask you what, in your experience, are the OS most used in computers connected to electronics development equipment, such as scopes, logic analyzers, signal generators, etc., in a professional or hobby setting.
Thank you for participating.

[cortex_m0]

For test equipment, it has to be Windows, because few of the existing tools from Keysight/R&S/etc work in other operating systems.

But 95% of the time, I only use the front panel on the instruments.

[T3sl4co1l]

Just offhand I would guess mac is least used, their user base being more creative/artistic than technical.

For the most part, it follows consumer computing trends.  It's been a long time since they days of specialized computers, workstations and mainframes; your average PC has orders of magnitude more power than all of those combined, certainly more than adequate to do anything you'd want to do with the connected instruments.

I don't know personally what drivers and tools are available for *nix, but I'm guessing for example NI supports it with their tools (most relevant probably being LabView or a GPIB adapter)?

So, corporate IT for instance, is probably already doing this, just request another PC to run equipment.

Tim

[NiHaoMike]

Just make a Python library to go with it. Pretty easy to make it work on every commonly used desktop OS and even some embedded ones.

[SmallCog]

Bench computers that we use attached to gear, to google stuff, etc are all windows.

I have no idea what your product is but if I was developing a bit of kit I'd have it with ethernet/wifi and let users connect to it via a web browser.

[daqq]

For me Windows in both my work and my hobby. There's really no practical alternative for me - the vast majority of software I use runs only on Windows* and I have no reason to use two separate OS.

* - Yes, I am aware that I can use wine and if I spend a few hours diddling my computer, use some obscure hack and type in a meter long arcane console command then it will actually be usable. But I want to use my computer to work, not solve computer problems.

[Karel]

There's a reason that most industrial grade software (Cadens, Zuken, ADS, Altera, Xilinx)  runs natively on Linux.
The same for STM32, Microchip, etc.

If possible use TCP/IP and/or RS-232 connection and use SCPI commands like most professional instruments.
That way the OS doesn't matter.

[Siwastaja]

If the question is aiming to create new tools, IMHO supporting both Windows and linux is almost a definite must. The fact some large players only support Windows doesn't change this. Many developers run linux for most of the tasks and booting into Windows to run one Windows-only tool is manageable, but totally unnecessary distraction so if you can get rid of that it's very helpful and creates a big value-add for significant customer base.

Windows support is obviously a definite must-have.

[PKTKS]

Let's  rant...

Technically ?
- telemetry? license managers? DRM? royalty per tool/format ? ...
- no source ? no tools w/ paying "extras"? not ready schemas.. ? printouts..(blue) ?

flushed that long list nearby latrine...

Ethically ?
- a threshold or crossroad has been reached where everybody
can (and should)  choose the proper option...

I myself just have stopped using and supported that MS pig shit.

It is a free ethical choice .. Technically there is not even debate.

Paul

[nctnico]

I'm currently developing a tool for electronics development work to be controlled by a computer. In order to better allocate development resources I'd like to ask you what, in your experience, are the OS most used in computers connected to electronics development equipment, such as scopes, logic analyzers, signal generators, etc., in a professional or hobby setting.

Nowadays you'd be foolish to develop for Windows only. Linux is pretty common in engineering workplaces.

[guenthert]

I'm currently developing a tool for electronics development work to be controlled by a computer.

    Perhaps I'm misreading this, but to me this sounds ambiguously phrased.  If the tool is expected to run on an engineer's desk, then Windows seems to be preferred in the EE world (I guess -- I have a software 'engineering' background and prefer Linux, as do most of my former colleagues).  If however that tool is to be run externally to any engineer's desktop, say for 24/7 test or production, then Linux is the obvious choice (just give it some nice web GUI so that the Windows guys don't get scared) if you (and those developing and maintaining that tool) are already familiar with it (but why do you ask then?).

[NiHaoMike]

Nowadays you'd be foolish to develop for Windows only. Linux is pretty common in engineering workplaces.

Windows 10 also has WSL so if you support Linux, there's a chance it will just work on Windows 10.

[Karel]

If you want to develop a tool that needs to have a GUI, than there's only one good choice: Qt

https://www.qt.io/

[Siwastaja]

Windows-linux 2:1 is very close to what I expected to see.

One third is a massive customer base.

Modern software development practices emphasis cross-platform whenever possible. If you have competent people working for you, the extra cost of supporting both Windows and linux is negligible.

If you choose to only support Windows, it's basically saying "f*** you, we are not interested in being helpful, cope." Those using linux mainly will cope and work around the limitations you gave them, but it will cost them time, and if available, they will turn to a competitor who offers the linux tool once available, so you are at a risk of losing the business.

OTOH, if you only decide to support linux, you are completely locking out some part of Windows users who are just unable to cope because it has been traditionally possible to work on Windows only so they never learned to work around.

All in all, for the widest audience, you absolutely must support Windows but not supporting linux is likely a very bad choice, so do support both.

In best case, all your tools/UIs/codebases except embedded core itself are written in such a way that providing support for all major OSes is a matter of running compile, running a simple unit test on each system, and packaging the files.

[Red Squirrel]

I personally prefer Linux because I'm not tied into a closed proprietary ecosystem.  But I do find I am sometimes limiting myself as there is just not as much good professional grade software that works in it (general purpose CAD for example) and if I buy a piece of hardware it's a gamble as to if it will work in Linux or not or be easy to do so (sometimes it works, but it's ways harder than in Windows).  Or if I want to get into something like say, FPGA development, I need to figure out how to do it in Linux.  That said I still prefer Linux for every day use and I will use ease of use/compatibility as a deciding factor if I buy something.

If developing a product I would just try to make it as universal as possible.  Make it work in a web browser or make it use serial and make the software open source and provide documentation such as the serial protocol.  This saves you from having to officially support other platforms but at least enables the product to be used on other platforms if someone wants to develop the software for it.    Of course if you put effort to make it cross platform then even better.

I hate that lot of companies go all copyright nazi on software that on it's own does nothing.  If you are selling hardware, the software is only there to make it work to it's fullest extent, it should be free/open source.   Same with drivers.  Wanting to keep the hardware itself closed source is another story I have less against that, but the software that is required to use the product absolutely should be open source.

[NiHaoMike]

OTOH, if you only decide to support linux, you are completely locking out some part of Windows users who are just unable to cope because it has been traditionally possible to work on Windows only so they never learned to work around.

Thanks to WSL, supporting Linux likely means it will just work on Windows 10, of course it's good to check.

[madires]

If you want to develop a tool that needs to have a GUI, than there's only one good choice: Qt

Have you missed the license debacle?

[madires]

In order to better allocate development resources I'd like to ask you what, in your experience, are the OS most used in computers connected to electronics development equipment, such as scopes, logic analyzers, signal generators, etc., in a professional or hobby setting.

Linux and Windows. Personally I prefer linux.

[MarkF]

If you want to develop a tool that needs to have a GUI, than there's only one good choice: Qt

Have you missed the license debacle?

I believe their LGPL license would apply.
Definitely worth digging into the details.
Your target audience is mostly likely Windows or Linux.

The LGPL licensed sources are here.

[Karel]

If you want to develop a tool that needs to have a GUI, than there's only one good choice: Qt

Have you missed the license debacle?

Qt has two licenses, a commercial one and the LGPL.
If you want support and the latest & greatest versions/updates/patches, you buy a commercial license. Nothing wrong with that.
If you don't want to pay but you still want to sell closed source software, you can use the LGPL'ed Qt shared libs (.so/.dll).

[asmi]

In my experience, engineers love going on about how superior Linux is, but when it comes to the actual work, they tend to choose Windows precisely because "it just works".

[madires]

Counting Microsoft's update disasters the last 12 months many people might disagree with "it just works".

[JohnnyMalaria]

Windows, by a mile.

When I worked in the pharmaceutical industry, everything was connected to a Windows machine.

Personally, I use Windows primarily but do some Linux stuff mainly because that's what's shipped with the RPi.

For many situations, if you know what you are doing, the choice of OS should be immaterial unless it's part of a formal design specification.

[Red Squirrel]

Counting Microsoft's update disasters the last 12 months many people might disagree with "it just works".

Oh man what is up with that anyway, do they not test their code? I guess they do... in production.    I don't remember it being this bad before, I mean yeah windows 98 and that era had lot of random crashes and blue screens and lockups etc that required to end task or reboot which was still pretty horrible, but Windows 10 seems to be plagued with bad updates that render the whole PC completely unusable. I'm so glad I don't use that OS I would be so pissed if 1: updates were being forced on me, and 2: these updates had a decent high chance of completely trashing my computer. 

[PKTKS]

Counting Microsoft's update disasters the last 12 months many people might disagree with "it just works".

Counting how many times Windooozze  locked and trashed
and bugged and failed over the 20+y w/me that sounds hilarious

My 6y nephew after 5 minutes was pointing and clicking and
dragging and fussing a linux machine built for him...

He can say that works.. even learned the finger asap

Paul