My first computer experience was in the mid 60's but I haven't kept up with the technology. My needs run more to math & calculations than to social networking. CAD drawing & communicating technical data on the internet is essential for me these days. Most of the post processed data I receive is in a RINEX file format which is converted to a windows compatible format. I am looking for recommendations for a UNIX/LINUX OS. I imagine there are a number of good alternatives but I would like to keep it as simple as possible. Any helpful suggestions are welcome. One big problem is that there are few, if any, surveying COGO & integrated CAD software programs that run on non windows platforms. Some shareware programs will run on just about any OS.
In the good old times the CAD software for WinDOS CAD struggled with memory limitations, so Unix was a preferred platform.
But today I would go for the best software, and choose the most supported platform for it.
Surveying calculations don't require a lot of memory. In the old days nobody had computers except engineers, surveyors & bankers & computers were designed to compute. Microsoft is getting more worthless everyday. It no longer caters to the scientific community. It has become an electronic gossip fence & marketing propaganda machine. I'm sick of microsoft & don't want any of their micky mouse products. Windows is a very poor platform for scientific applications. It is for Suzie Q housewife to bs with her friends & find junk to buy to waste her husbands money.
Surveying calculations don't, the computing power of a C64 can handle a few simple equations, maps and such take a lot more. I wouldn't call this a dark age for scientific applications, they've got more choices of platforms and languages now than they'd ever imagined, and seem to invent more every day.
But I can't honestly disagree about the dumbing down of computing... I had a real wakeup call when I visited one Christmas holiday to find my father and sister busily tabulating totals from hundreds of megs of spreadsheets by hand. Tabulation being the very literal reason computers as we know them were invented.
Since they were doing so on a computer, I could show them how to do so automatically, had they doing so by phone, they'd have been up the creek. In 1981, a computer language was the only thing you got with your computer. By Windows 95, it was an application you had to dig deep to find. Now, people use computers (phones) with no access to their own filesystem and no ability to write their own programs day after day with no idea how much they've been robbed. Application designers are so starved for IO they've resorted to using the audio port for digital signals.
This is getting off-topic however. I agree that you should find the application you want and choose a platform it works on.
Hi C688...
Terrific, I take that as a compliment for AudioScope...
It is surprising what one can do with the mic and ear port(s) as I/O. It does get seriously difficult though with only a single mono mic input instead of stereo.
Even DC measurement and variable DC output level is easy with the right knowledge through said port(s), especially using the shell...
Sorry but I don't have a clue what you are talking about. I already have a perfectly good co-go program & a cad program but I can no longer get it updated & it won't produce a PDF file which is needed to send drawings to gov. agencies & clients. I am not going to buy another microsoft computer. I suspect anything will handle email. I have worked on state of the art surveying & engineering computers running windows. They work for some people but I don't like them. They are an asset for some types of work involving processing large quantities of data. The software is mostly written to idiot proof the process for people that don't understand what they are doing or the basics of geodetic science. There are open source programs but I can't find anything else written for UNIX or LINUX. I guess there isn't enough demand. If software is the answer, why are so many moving away from windows? There is more software for windows than anything else. My reasons for wanting to move away from windows are likely very similar to your reasons for using LINUX or UNIX. I don't want to do technical work on a computer designed for facebook for starters. I feel like I have just turned on the "Mickey Mouse Club" when I open windows. Is there no other alternative?
I have no desire to be a computer programmer. I am seeking a tool to do the work, which is mostly co-go & cad. I don't have a need to process large quantities of data. My question is not what OS to use but which UNIX/ LINUS OS works best for my application & does anybody know of any co-go or cad software that will run on it. A virtual machine is one alternative but I am told that is less than an ideal solution.
Thank you! Yes, I have looked at some of it but I was not aware of quite a lot of it. I had not seen that specific site. That gives me a starting point for doing some research at the least. There are also a number of emerging professional publications for the surveying & mapping communities that I want to look at. Architects still use feet & inches which has been obsolete for 100+ years. They live in a different world.
The problem is getting coordinate points produced in co-go & collected in the field to interface with cad that will label the lines with bearings & distances & do such things as create line tables. Geodetic positions take the curvature of the earth & the convergence of the meridians (mapping angle) into consideration. The advantage being that the position is no longer totally dependent on physical monuments once tied to a geodetic datum. Found original monuments still govern by law in most jurisdictions but replacing them once destroyed can be a big problem. Calculations can be done in a separate cogo program or it can run inside of cad. Strong coordinate geometry capabilities are imperative.
You are using analog ports for analog signals, as intended 
I mean, the strange things like credit card scanners which plug into microphone ports because iphone and android hardware support is so completely barren.