"John Smith" wrote in message
news
Carl:

Exactly, why would arrl back such a system?

If they, indeed are, I don't think they should be ...

Amateur radio should not allow any PROPRIETARY hardware/software to become
a standard. We are not about supporting monopolies, we are about the free
experimentation, development, testing, construction, use, etc. of equip.
and methods/protocols, even that equipment encompassed by the homebrewer.

We need some more linux people in amateur radio for the software and more
computer hardware people for the hardware... it would be a mistake to
support companies holding a monopoly, there are already commercial
stations for that... besides, windows software just ends up enriching
bill g.

While I have experience with linux I am forced by the need for a number of
applications to use Windows XP on most of my machines.
I think there are a lot of people in the same boat, so I don't think that
you're going to get an overwhelming majority of hams to abandon the Windows
OS and move to linux exclusively ... HOWEVER, open source ham APPLICATIONS
can be ported to both operating systems so the users don't have to be locked
out by their choice (whether they're "forced" to use Windows for other
reasons or not) of OS.

73,
Carl - wk3c