Please pardon my lack of knowledge in this subject, but we
are trying to decide what kind of sequence analysis package (hardware
and software) to purchase. We've been spending about $1000 per year
using the GCG package provided by a computing center here on Purdue
campus, and since we project more usage in the future, we decided
that it's time to have our own.
After a brief search of faq's and archived postings, as well
as talking with collegues here, it seems to us that GCG is beyond
our reach: we don't wish to buy highend workstations. We want a program
or a set of programs with most if not all of the functions provided
by GCG, but with a nicer interface (we've been using line mode for
our GCG here by telnet).
We narrowed our choices down to two:
(1) a 486/586 pc running linux and X-windows
(2) a Machintosh or a Power Mac
With the first one, we can run MS-Windows with Hitachi's
DNAsis for window, or we install Linux and run GDE plus other freely
availabe sequence analysis programs for unix, something like BIRCH
(but running on a pc).
With the second choice, we probably have to purchase the
MacDNAsis from Hitachi. Or we can try GeneWorks (?) also.
But here is the question: (sorry for the long introduction)
Can DNAsis replace GCG completely or nearly? What about speed? It
seems we have people here running DNAsis on a Mac SE with a CD-ROM
happily. If we understand right, GDE covers most of GCG's functions,
and it's available for free.
Please respond to this account or post here. If there is
enough interest, I'll glad to post a summary. Thank you in advance.
Xiaomu
