Long Term Supoprt

[Tark]

Do we have any idea how long NI (Emerson) intends to keep support for the LINX toolkit going ?

We've done a few commercial applications using Raspberry Pi and LINX, and they have gone very well, but there is always the concern that LINX will be dropped at some point.

As an Alliance member we'll probably be OK as we are able to support older versions of LabVIEW but it would be nice to have some sort of indication of the long term support.

[santo_13]

Based on this article, LINX is already deprecated, and it is recommended to use the LabVIEW Hobbyist Toolkit.

[rolfk]

While that is technically correct it is likely not what OP wanted to ask. The Hobbyist Toolkit is mostly a rebranding of the LINX Toolkit with minor improvements, and yes I mean other things than the changed icons. 😀

While we all should talk about the Hobbyist Toolkit if you are using LabVIEW 2021 or later, most people having been deeper into it than just using a few functions from it, tend to still call it LINX Toolkit. It somehow sticks more than “Hobbyist Toolkit”.

I can’t speak for NI here but my guess is that they will maintain it for some time. Maintaining means that it will be updated for each new LabVIEW version since it integrates deeply into the project provider framework and that seems to make one installer per LabVIEW version almost unavoidable. Substantial improvements from NI are however directly proportionally linked to their chances to earn money from it, which means an infinite small percentage above 0.

[Tark]

Thanks for the clarification Rolf........I wasn't aware that a rebranding had taken place.

I still don't like this term as I feel it devalues the LINX toolkit to an extent and implies it is only for hobbyists. We've used LINX for two professional projects and it has worked very reliably.

Adrian