BSD Question's.

[Frank Jahnke]

>> I didn't see the first few emails in this
>> thread so excuse me
>> if you have answered this, but what can you do
>> on Windows
>> that you can't do on FreeBSD. Other than play
>> the latest and
>> greatest games. I'm just wondering.

> Schwab Streetsmart
> Accounting Software (CA)

I don't know these, so I can't comment.

> Quicken

I run Quickbooks on an old 98SE box.  I also use this machine for a proprietary
program NIH now requires for electronic submission of grant applications.  At the moment,
it runs only on Windows.

> Photoshop 

I don't need full Photoshop -- I use GIMP and NIH's ImageJ, which are good enough for
my applications.  These are very technical (mainly interpreting photomicrographs), and 
not putting cat or dog heads on images of people.  Also, many versions of Photoshop 
(but not CS) run quite well under Wine.

> Adobe Acrobat (for creating PDFs)

I run this under Wine, and it works fine.  Usually I create PDFs with ghostscript,
but Acrobat is very useful for things like sorting or collating pre-existing PDF files,
which I do need, and filling PDF forms.  Then again, I use troff and TeX for text 
formatting, which most people don't.

No question, the greatest strength of Windows is the huge amount of software available for it.  
EVERYTHING runs on Windows, and yes, you have to invest time in FreeBSD to get things to work right.
Usually there is an acceptable work-around.  Not always, but usually.  While I don't use the Win98
box much, it is useful to have around.  Since you can pick one of these up for $100 or so, I don't
see this as a limitation if you prefer the Unix environment most of the time, which I do.

One thing that FreeBSD (and Linux) offers is an extensive numerical analysis software (matrix inversions,
Finite Element methods, graphical pre- and post-processors and statistical software) and decent free 
compilers that would cost a lot on Windows.  That's very helpful for a cash-strapped start-up, like mine.

Admittedly that is not the question the OP had.  OTOH, the amount of money I've save on software has
allowed me to hire someone to do more work in the lab.  That's the most important thing for me.

Frank