From the Tekscopes newsgroup on Yahoo
I just this year went the linux route with IEEE-488 (GPIB) and python.
I use a NI pci controller card and that is easy enough to set up under the “Linux-lab project” http://linux-gpib.sourceforge.net/ but there is not a binding for pyvisa to that package…
pyvisa http://pyvisa.sourceforge.net/
geting NI's drivers to compile on ubuntu was major pain but it can be done, follow this guide
http://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-6742
then pyvisa will bind.
Be sure to use “Hardy Heron” flavor of ubuntu do not!!! use kubuntu (KDE)
Stay with the gnome desktop. Ubuntu 8.10 LTS only!
Learning curve approaches vertical asymptotically, but it most certainly totally completely worth it if you get my drift.
Using python 2.6 (stay away from 3) and wxglade you will be empowered.
I use it for daq from a HP35670A writing data sets straight into Gnumeric.
You also get numpy scipy and matplotlib all free of charge for any kind of analysis you would like to do…no need for matlab or labview.
You will have to build a gui for that nifty polished effect but wxglade is very simple (much simpler than labview imho).
Regards
Matthew.
The prologix devices work well (no drivers needed) under Linux. OpenGPIB promises to launch drivers for Tek, some HP equipment, mostly geared to extracting data from the devices and putting waveforms into GTKWave, a very nice, free waveform viewer for Linux.
Here's a project that is getting started on GPIB on Linux: