Quote:
Originally Posted by 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
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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
