[sac-forum] Re: Mac vs. PC

On Thu, 27 Jul 2006 20:35:35 -0700, Peter Argenziano wrote:

> To bring some relevance to this dichotomy, I'll say that the choices in 
> astro software for the PC far outweigh the choices for the Mac. This alone 
> has kept me from using a Mac for this hobby.

What do you mean by choices?  Are you running more than one planetarium
at the same time?  Or serially?  Or are there other types of software
that you need too?  Choices are not necessarily a good thing, especially
if each choice is going to cost you money.

I only run Linux, but I don't find that to be much of a limitation.
I have several planetarium programs available, although Kstars seems to
be currently the best.  It includes driver software for about a dozen
different telescope controllers.

The only astronomy related PC software I miss is Deep Space.  This was a
DOS starcharting program.  The charts were fairly simple (easily enhanced
with a vector drawing program), but I haven't seen anything with better
output.  I've been toying with the idea of writing my own; and I have even
downloaded the Tycho and Hiparchus databases (way back when I was on
dialup!).

        -Paul

Other related posts: