For my build I was keen to avoid Mach 3 for the reasons listed elsewhere.This left a choice for my purposes between LinuxCNC and an Arduino based solution.I bought an Arduino to learn a bit about them and tried one or two experiments-it seemed utterly reliable,but the style of it's usage was totally alien to me.Linux is something I have used in the form of one or other Ubuntu derivatives for a few years and downloading an iso image of LinuxCNC and burning a DVD was no big deal.I had to find a ued computer to get my hands on a parallel port,but it was very inexpensive and I reconfigured it as a dual boot system so I could use Windows if I wanted to.Installing the operating system wasn't difficult,configuring the BOB and getting the motors spinning was quite challenging as the BOB was bundled with the steppers and power supply from Long's Motor and any documentation was very sparse and for use with Linux-non-existent;being a bit stubborn and reasoning that it was a matter of 1's and 0's I dug deeper .Thankfully a couple of evenings searching youtube put me on the right track as well as demonstrating that you need to be a bit selective as not all video tutorials are equally useful.You have been given good advice in other posts,is there a community of users of your machine to offer specific advice?

I looked at CAM software also and found two solutions for different aspects.F-engrave is good and free and deals with engraving very nicely.For cutting panels and pockets I downloaded Freecad,you can guess the price,and it isn't the most intuitive software I have ever encountered.It is getting better quite steadily and the development branch is nudging closer to 3D surfacing and adaptive toolpaths are already present.It will import a number of file formats if you find the parametric aspect annoying and there are post processors for several systems including GRBL and LinuxCNC.