Hi!!

I am working in the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia and we're gonna get a license. Because we mainly have computers with Linux we might get a Linux license. However I am wondering if the 2 versions (Win and Lin) are totally equal or they have any differences?

This questions is mainly toward Linux programmers who might have found any problems that Windows programmers haven't found.

Thank you very much!!

The Windows version can call .NET and ActiveX classes. If you are an academic institution, purchase a Academic department license. It costs $5000 and you get professional version of almost all NI software. LabVIEW Mac/PC/Linux are all included.

EDIT: The Academic department license allows anybody in your department to use the licenses for non-commercial projects.

Tomi

Well, the kind of application you need to develop will define the best version to choose.

IMAQ and DAQ drivers for Linux are often a problem... You should be able to find documentation on NI website about what is/isn't support on Linux version.
I'm absolutely not a fan of windows, but if you have to choose between Linus/MacOS/Windows to develop LabVIEW application, I would recomand to choose Windows it if you want to be sure to avoid drivers nightmare.

Of course as pointed Tomi, if you can afford, a departement license would avoid to have to choose.

Adding my two cents:

It would also be good to note that some of the add-ons available for LabVIEW are listed as "Windows, Not in Base Package" (e.g., MathScript). You may want to check for add-on availablity as part of your decision.

-H

Thank you for the valuable information.

I am using the drivers I could found in the Driver Network in National Instruments (http://www.ni.com/devzone/idnet/). The drivers here are not specified to be for Win or Lin. This means they are for both?

Right now the ones being used are the drivers for the Tektronix DPO4000 osciloscopes (http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.download_page?p_id_guid=0CDA4000E8BC0C3FE0440003BA7CCD71) but I don't know if they are only for Windows. I guess they could be used in Linux as well if they are poster in ni.com. No?

This driver is listed as an IVI driver. IVI drivers require some lower level OS specific software. There MAY be IVI drivers for Linux, but you should look for plug-and-play drivers for your instruments.

These are basically VIs that can be loaded on any platform. You can also customize the driver; IVI interfaces are typically DLLs and you can't "see inside". Given a choice, plug-and-play drivers are the way to go

your tkdpo4k has a plug-and-play driver located here

Great info. Ok, so now I know I can use Linux for what I need. The bosses don't seem to interested in getting an academic license right now.