Hi Craig,
then expecting it to run without a later Windows release is a matter of YOUR intransigence not Microsofts OR Artsoft's.
I did not blame anybody for my paranoia!
you obviously consider Windows as at best a necessary evil and refuse to get a later version than XP.
No, that rule of abstraction does not fit.
I don't install anything, that requires internet access during installation - no matter what it is.
Afaik there's no offline-installer for windows after release 8 and as I don't have any other apps, requiring windows, I did not buy another windows version for years.
To check compatibility of my own apps, I run windows demo in VM - I install it, when I need it and remove it, when I'm done.
Equally clearly you are very computer savvy and have no doubt that you can extract the utmost from Linux.
Don't know, on what base you state the first sentence.
I'm just a linux user. Compared to windows, I need to care less for linux, than for windows. I need less OS-skills and less administration time. In other words, I don't need to spend time for administration.
I took me some years to find the right distribution for me (for me its safety and stability first), but since 05 I use debian stable and since then, I never had to care for OS - so
I can use the workstation at my will.
Why bother with Mach4, I understand Liniux CNC is very capable and given that it is open source any required functionality could be programmed into it.
linuxCNC may be considered capable an powerfull until you try to code something for it. linuxCNC is the best sample on how not to do things. Its a crap, its ugly and many things are performed twice or even more - so it is very slow too.
After few weeks I did not want to bother any longer and removed the local copy of linuxCNC.
... and what distract me most: there's no help on "real" questions.
So no - not my way!
Reinhard