Subject: chemistry software and Windows NT

From: Leif Laaksonen <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 07:58:50 +0300 (EET DST)

Dear Computational Chemists,

I'm sorry this is not really chemistry but I guess it is also allowed
to discuss aspects of computational chemistry software on this list?

It's about a year ago we had the last discussion about the usability of
Windows NT for computational chemistry. If I still remember right, the
response was not too enthusiastic from the user community. Unix
workstations are still the ones people want on their descs. There is
however a life even outside computational chemistry and it looks
very strongly that Unix is loosing ground on other sectors. There
is an interesting article in the May issue of Byte about the Unix/NT
server aspects. Quite a lot of the stuff is general and applies to the
workstation market as well. I also know that the major molecular modelling
companies will have more products in the near future for the Windows 95/NT
platform. I believe that in pure computational (cpu) aspects the Unix
boxes still have a speed advantage but I'n not quite sure about other
aspects like graphics, database handling...

This was a rather long intro to my question. How do you see the 
workstation market at the moment? Do you have more interest in the 
W95/NT platforms and would you be interested to see more software on
other platforms than Unix?

I think this must be the first time it is possible to develop a graphics
package which can be run (without major rewriting) on most hardware
platforms (Unix, PC/Windows, Macintosh...) using free available libraries
or tools like Tcl/Tk and MESA (OpenGL lookalike 3D graphics library),
just to mention one approach. 

Please let me know what you think and I will summarize the respond
for everyone to enjoy.

Thanks for your help.

-leif laaksonen

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Leif Laaksonen                     |  
Center for Scientific Computing    | Phone:      358 0 4572378
P.O. Box 405                       | Mobile:     358 400425203
FIN-02101 Espoo                    | Telefax:    358 0 4572302
FINLAND                            | Mail:  [email-masked]
---------URL: http://laaksonen.csc.fi/leif.laaksonen.html----------