Well, I have just subscribed to the list, so I think that it is time to introduce myself.
First of all: I have not downloaded yet "Electronic Lab". I downloaded last week the "main" fedora (The live CD, but installed shortly after trying) but I will download this when I arrive home (Now writing from work, don't tell my boss ;) ). Electronics are both a job and a hobby for me. At work, mainly used 8 bit microcontrollers (PIC18 always, or nearly always) until a few months ago. And always developing on windows machines. I tried Linux at home, time ago, but the computer was shared, and, well, my brother did not like having a bootloader. And I was a poor student. Probably most of you know what I mean ;). Later, I almost forgot Linux, and went on using different windows OS. But as I said, a few months ago it changed: we needed (at work) to develop a kind of set-top box, and video & audio streaming software, and as I am the younger here, and the only one speaking english -kind of ;)- it ended assigned to me.
Oh, about speaking english: I am spanish. I always though that english was important, and also needed it for understanding the songs whose music I loved. That songs were from Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, and some more. Understanding the letters made me lome even more those songs, but thats another topic.
Well, let's return to the point. The project was assigned to me, so I started learning about embedded linux -The hardware used was a kind of beagleboard clone- and linux cross-compiling. Also it meant to leave Visual Studio in the host PC, and go back to writing C apps in a text editor (Hey, as i used to do when I was 12 or 13 years old. Well, It was Pascal those days, but...). I have almost leaved electronics as a hobby lately, but this project made me wanted to switch back to the days when I developed robots at home, and programmed for the pleasure of it, not for work. But now, using Linux, Open Source tools, and so on.
Let me summarize: After getting Fedora as the OS (well, dual boot Fedora 15 & Windows 7) for development, it was time for the tools. For programming the PICs, now exist Microchip MPLAB X. I have to try it yet, but it does not worry me much. As the PIC18 are well known to me, and mainly i want to try new things, I think I will use it only few times. Maybe with PIC32 I will use it more. Even if I had lost the will for doing such home projects at home, I never stopped buying develpment boards (low cost ones, only ;) ) and now have PIC32 boards for playing, PIC24, STM32 for developing with ARM, a launchpad (TI MSP430 value line) and homemade boards. So now I am looking for toolchains for those families. That´s for programming. For the hardware, I used to desing schematics and pcb's in homer or University with OrCAD or PROTEUS, and, in the work, CIRCUIT MAKER 2000 (Yup, STILL they use this... imagine how I feel....). Now i searched, and think that KiCAD is the best available option.
Mmm, I think that I have procrastinated enough (Time to go back to work...) but, as a last think, probably should tell something about me. As I said, I am from Spain, have studied Electronics Engineering, and have recently reached 27 years. I work a lot, earn few money, but, hey, I really love what I do. Sure, if I had more time probably would do more things at home (At this moment i reach my work at 9 hours and leave at 19...), but as I said, I love this stuff :) Another things I like are Basketball, SciFi and Fantasy books (Which mainly I read in english since a few years ago), and some TV series (SciFi mainly) but downloaded to view it when I can. I have Tv at home, but feels terribly alone hehehe.
Ah, and I want to apologize for the mistakes I had made (In this post, and in all that may come after ;) ). I try my best to write (and speak) correctly, but it is not always easy. Feel free to point me any mistake that makes your eyes hurt.
As soon as I get my computer ready, and start doing anithing be sure that I will post here both questions and results. Since then, I will be reading ;)
See you guys!
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