What the best linux version for robotics, can linux even work for this,im tiered of windows crashing and losing my programs…!!!
You know,
you shouldn’t double post 
wowy7, I think you missing the point that he is putting his origional post in the proper group for it.
He could of asked the Admin to move his topic,
so actually i am not missing the point 
It’s OK. Don’t worry about it. I directed him here from his original post.
8-Dale
So far, I am really liking the Debian Etch (Testing) distribution of Linux. It has everything I have needed so far, and is source friendly in case you need to build something that is not available as a package.
The only problem with Linux and robotics is there doesn’t seem to be a real easy way to read sensors like the PING ultrasonic or Sharp IR Ranging sensors. I have not really dug too deep to find a solution to this yet, but will start looking again.
What kind of system are you thinking about using for Linux robotics? Maybe we can find a solution together. 
8-Dale
It all depends how familiar you are with linux. I use XUbuntu at home, Fedora core 6 at work and Damn Small Linux on my mini-itx board.
All you should need for robotics is a C/C++ compiler, such as gcc and a serial I/O terminal (I use minicom).
If you need to use Atom Bot Board IDE, you can use the windows Emulator WINE and it works really great ( I tested this only with a serial/serial DB9 cable ).
Thanks for the input guys i ordered linux xp and ubuntu ( i on dial up and the download would,ve taken a week) and i,ll see if i can find the one linuxguy is using,i have 2 500mhz and a 700mgz and a C/D 6300 pentiums and a
2400 amd plus 300mgz and 166 and a tandy 1000 so i got a few toys to play with ,but for the moment i,m thinking of using 500 or the 700 for a PCBOT
but i,m thinking that i,ll cost me a fortune to Go XP , and my XP machines down and roborelm wont work on 98 or linux so i,m sort of hung at the moment . any suggestion on something like roborelm for linux i doubt it,ll run in a emulator but could one of u guys tryit well this should be a fun prodject,
ohhh about those sensors mabe my bs2 to read the sensors would work?
You would still need to communicate between the PC and the BS2. Using a serial link between the PC and BS2 would work if you use a simple command language to tell the BS2 what to do - which sensor to read and result to return, etc. It would be nice to be able to use i2c, but I don’t know if the BS2 can be an i2c slave (the Basic Atom and Atom PRO must always be i2c master, which is too bad).
8-Dale
the BS2 and the BOEbot were my start in the robotics hobby. I can confirm that the BS2 cannot operate as an I2C slave. To the best of my knowledge, no basic stamp can.
hans’t any one heard of gumstix?
Like linuxguy said… Debian is good. I personally like Ubuntu. If you never used linux before, ubuntu is a good start. It is very user friendly with the commands. I think the commands used in ubuntu are easier to remember than other linuxes. Although most commands are the same.
Pretty much any distro of linux will work. If you have a specific piece of software you want, go to their website and make sure the distro is supported. Sometimes a ubuntu software won’t work on centos for example.
Why would you want a gumstix when you can get a 1-5$ pic?
please do not confuse this with any sort of criticism directed at the gumstix product as they quite possibly are worth what they cost given the capabilities and form factor involved. while the gumstix concept is tight and all, most of the regulars here are not OEM or funded by university dollars, nor are the majority pushing any radical form factor envelopes that would justify the $$$ to use them. Personally I think if I could get someone else to foot the bill I’d love to play around with them but they are just too far outside my price point to go there. 
True they do cost a lot more than your average micro chip and if you have no need for on board processing of that magnitude then you are better off with a less expensive micro. But I’ve also seen some of my professors go the wrong way, and spend 150+ dollars so they could control a robot with a PC over rf serial and wifi on top of their nifty 80 dollar micro board. They could have just as easily gone with a gumstix for a little more money and skipped controlling from a PC. But I agree options should be weighed against your project’s needs.
But to get back on track since I guess we are talking about which desktop environment is best for robot development…
I’d say if you are new to Linux, go with Ubuntu. I originally started on CentOS (Red Hat clone) and it turned me off of Linux for a while. Then my friend tried to force Gentoo on me (which I can see now has its charms but don’t start there for the love of god). Then I found Ubuntu and then switched to Debian, which was a very very easy switch from Ubuntu. I’ve been using Debian for about 18 months now and am really happy with it. And if you aren’t new to Linux you could probably make do with just about any modern distribution.