Ubuntu and astro software

[Nifty]

Hi all
I am contemplating loading the latest version of Ubuntu onto my laptop.
The question is: Is there any astro software that does not work on linux in general and Ubuntu in particular.
Another question that has just occurred to me is: are there any brands of laptop that don't like linux in general and Ubunt in particular? I ask that question because I have read somewhere that some lappies dont like linux.
It would appear that some laptops are designed for windows.
I thought it was the other way around.
This might be a big ask but I thought that maybe the collective knowledge of IIS members might provide a few answers.

Cheers
Nev

[stephenb]

Hi Nev,

You beat me to this post, I was going to ask the same questions!

I have had a brief play with an installation of Ubuntu on a family member's laptop (don't ask me what model but it's about 3 years old), and it works beautifully. I am a big supporter of open source applications these days, although I appreciate they are not for everyone.

I plan to build a new desktop in the coming weeks and install Ubuntu instead of Windows, and I will do some testing then.



From my experience, any computer (laptop or desktop) will run whatever operating system is installed onto the boot drive. I have bought and refurbished all types of computers in my time, and even with the brand new ones, after taking them out of the box, I delete the installed OS and put my own on.

For example, my latest laptop came with Vista pre-installed. I switched it on, looked at it for a minute or two, then shut it down, put in my genuine version of XP and installed it. Done. Again, this procedure is not for everyone, but all you are doing is applying your own OS on a hard drive. New computers these days come with a pre-installed OS and either a recovery disk (a burnt copy/image of the HDD) or this copy/image installed on a separate partition of the HDD for later recovery, hence it's name.

My gut feeling regarding the astro software is that is hit and miss. Okay let's create a short list of the most common and see if we can get some answers:

Stellarium - http://stellarium.org/
Starry Nights (any package)
Registax (3, 4 & 5)
DSLRFocus
Cartes Du Ciel - http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=64092
Deep Sky Stacker
Jupiter2
Maxim DLThat is a start anyway.

I believe there is a application called WINE which can assist in running applications in Linux, but I guess the only was is for people to test the applications.

[renormalised]

You don't need WINE and Windows software to run on it. Linux has a perfectly good piece of astroware called KStars. Runs on the KDE shell but you should be able to get it to run in Ubuntu's native Gnome. They may have a Gnome port of the software. Although I'd recommend installing KDE anyway. KStars is a very comprehensive program...much like Cartes du Ciel although more powerful. You can run a great variety of telescopes from the program and it's ASCOM compliant. Best part about it all...it's free:D:D

I have several dual boot systems and when I use them for anything astronomical, I boot to Linux and use KStars.

[Terry B]

For camera control Audela (http://www.audela.org/english_audela.php) will also run on linux.

[gary]

Hi Nev,

An operating system can be divided into two parts, namely the kernel and
the device drivers.

Portability of the Linux kernel between machines is rarely a problem.
The 'gotcha' can be with the device drivers.

Some devices and their interfaces have remained relatively generic across
multiple generations of machine architectures, so the software drivers
for such devices work without problem across all hardware platforms.

However, some devices offer the hardware designer more freedom of choice
as to the chipset and associated features and so tend to be in a higher state
of flux. Classic examples are graphic interfaces, network interfaces
(both wired and wireless) and sound interfaces. Since areas such as
graphic performance are continually evolving, the chipsets also continually evolve.
It is a very competitive market segment. The problem is that the driver writers can't
always keep up withe chipsets that have new interfaces.

Sometimes in the case of graphic interfaces it might be a case that the
driver supports all of the important modes of operation, but may not support
various 'accelerated' or 'direct' modes.

There are web pages devoted to listing machines and Linux compatibility,
but because there is a nearly continual stream of new machines on the market,
you may not be able to find a listing for your specific model.

At a minimum, once you have settled on a particular model laptop, I recommend
you at least determine from the manufacturer's specs the graphics chipset
and the network chipset. Then Google those part numbers and 'linux' to
determine if there might a driver and any associated issues. Adding the
word 'problem' into the search can be beneficial. A similar Google
search would be the model name of the machine and linux and 'problem'.

There is a little bit of marketing spin going on with the 'designed for Windows' badging.
What is really happening is that the laptop manufacturer or the manufacturers of
the various chipset peripherals make sure that their devices are either supported
by existing Window's drivers or if not, they write their own driver and have
Microsoft certify it.

There is an enormous amount of astronomy software available for Linux
and one poster has already mentioned Kstars. Xephem is also an excellent
planetarium program. As most professional observatories run UNIX/Linux
you will also find a very large number of specialist packages are freely
available.

If you need to run Windows software on your Linux, rather than Wine, highly
recommend you invest in a copy of VMware Workstation. This circumvents the
need for dual booting and essentially provides you with the ability to run
multiple virtual machines on your one hardware machine. You would then
load what ever flavour of Windows you want onto one of these virtual machines
and then load your Windows apps on that. In the end, you have an entire Windows
environment running in one X-window of your Linux machine. The VMware
virtual machines simply use virtual disks which are just files on your host
Linux OS. Disk space permitting, one can load other OS's into other virtual
machines, for example, different versions of Linux, Solaris or other
Window's variants and it is fast and easy to switch between them.

With VMWare, which is a commercial product, you then have the advantage
of running Linux plus any other version of Windows you so choose and any
app, without rebooting. You can even cut and paste between them. Performance
tends to be excellent and for many apps you forget that you are using a virtual
machine.

By way of background, I've been using UNIX/Linux continually since 1977 and
some friends from those early days directly worked on the UNIX kernel,
both here in Sydney and whilst they were on sabbatical at Bell Labs at Murray Hill
in New Jersey. These friends were in turn personal friends with the original
UNIX creators at Bell Labs. So this legacy means UNIX is somewhat in the blood. :)

Enjoy!

Best regards

Gary Kopff
Mt. Kuring-Gai

[snowyskiesau]

Just to add to gary's post:

VMware does have a number of free versions of its software.

VMserver - this allows you to create and run VMware sessions/appliances. It has a web based management console.
VMplayer - this allows you to run sessions/appliances but does not have the ability to create a new installation (there is a free web based tool that get's around this restriction)

I only run Linux on my servers at home but use Vmware if I have something I need to run under Windows. (CAD mostly). I've been running VMware Workstation (not free) for about 7 years and it would have to be the best piece of software I';ve ever bought.

[luka]

Stellarium runs natively on linux.
Also there are debian (which ubuntu is based on) packages of Cartes du Ciel on sourceforge.
I remember also that some people were using deep sky stacker with wine...

[doergn]

For logging:
Observation Manager (http://observation.sourceforge.net/en/) runs perfectly on Linux (as it's Java based)
For star charts:
Cartes du Ciel (http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/index.html) (old 2.7x) versions run perfectly stable in Wine

Regards + clear skies

Dirk

[Nifty]

Thanks everyone.
You all have given me plenty to think about and some interesting software to obtain.
I think I will save this thread and digest it at my leisure.

Once again thanks heaps.

Cheers
Nev

[meliux]

KStars and Stellarium work fine on my installation of Ubuntu on my Dell Inspiron 6400... the whole thing works like a charm; ubuntu and dell are very compatible.