[ccp4bb]: April PyMOL News: Kick-off, OpenGL Cards, Unix

["Warren L. DeLano" <warren@delanoscientific.com>]

***  For details on how to be removed from this list visit the  ***
***          CCP4 home page http://www.ccp4.ac.uk         ***

Molecular Graphics Users,

In case you haven't heard, I am now full-time on the PyMOL project and
am working to build DeLano Scientific into a self-sustaining Open-Source
software company.  To learn more about our goals, plans, or philosophy,
please read http://www.delanoscientific.com/about.html .  Sponsorship is
welcome via purchase of PyMOL licenses and maintenance/support
agreements.

The past several weeks have been very hectic in dealing with the
transition and in getting caught up on paperwork.  But we now have an
effective workspace (in my garage, for at least a few months) with a
reasonable cross-section of popular PC hardware and operating systems.

The PyMOL web site http://pymol.sf.net now has a list of some of the
OpenGL graphics cards we are supporting, and thus recommending.  This
list may be of interest to non-PyMOL users as well.

Mac, Linux, and Windows will remain the primary PyMOL platforms, but I
welcome your feedback on the following question:  How important is it
that PyMOL run well (be tested and released for use) under traditional
Unix operating systems?  Such as:

   1) IRIX (6.5.x)
   2) Solaris (7, 8, or 9)
   3) Tru64 Unix (for the Alpha) 
   4) and any other Unix platforms (AIX?)

While PyMOL sponsorship will likely provide enough funding to cover
inexpensive Mac and PC hardware, Unix workstations are simply not
affordable for us, given our limited means.  It is not just the cost of
the hardware (which can sometimes be found cheap), but those darn
compiler licenses and hardware support expenses which really get us!

If you wish to see PyMOL tested and released under one or more of the
above OSes, do have have any leads on how we could obtain (or
borrow/access) complete and functioning systems (with compilers) without
breaking the bank?  DeLano Scientific isn't yet big enough to get
semi-permanent loans from vendors, and our one SGI recently died.

Please email me directly warren@delanoscientific.com with your thoughts.


If I don't hear from you, then I will assume Unix support is no longer
important, so please do respond if you care!

Thanks,
Warren

PS.  Although I welcome volunteers willing to support PyMOL releases on
their own Unix hardware, this hasn't worked out too well in the past
because PyMOL bugs can be hard to fix.

When problems are discovered, it is usually necessary for me to have
direct access to the system in order to troubleshoot and resolve things
quickly, and that is why we have adopted the approach of having
supported hardware on-site whenever possible.

--
mailto:warren@delanoscientific.com
Warren L. DeLano, Ph.D. 
Principal
DeLano Scientific LLC
San Carlos, CA, USA