What OS are you using? What do you recommend?

[bader]

Hello Stargazers,

I've been here for a while and I've been quiet. I joined this forum to learn and research about the things I'm about to do for this hobby. In the last 3 months, I was saving budget to purchase the gears I needed, including a laptop that I will use during the stargazing or possibly, when I start astrophotography. 

I was confused due the large amount of good laptops, but since there's three major operating systems currently in the market, I was hesitated to purchase a typical windows laptop. I had to choose a laptop that give me the ability to use any kind of OS.

So, I purchased a Macbook Air 11", it's a beautiful piece of hardware with a great battery life. It gives the possibility to use any OS: Macintosh, Windows or Linux natively.

I've done a further research, I see that most people use Windows and Linux.

Now, my question is: What OS should I invest in along with the Macintosh? Windows or Linux? I understand that Macintosh is a UNIX based system, and that most of software available on Linux works in Macintosh too.

But I'd love to use an OS that's dedicated to this hobby, I'm more interested in Linux and the possibilities provided within.

But this post isn't all about what do you recommend, I want to hear your story and how you settled in the current OS you're using.

Thanks. :-)

[Bizibilder]

Almost all astro related software is written to work under Windows as that is by far the most commonly used operating system.  I use windows 7 and have had no problems with any third party astro or imaging software running on it.  I have no idea if windows 8 causes any issues as I don't use it - I'm sure someone who uses it can comment as to its suitability.

[JamesF]

Have to agree with Roger.  There's probably a far wider choice of software if you're running Windows than Linux or OSX and hardware manufacturers often only provide Windows-based drivers for their hardware.

Which is not to say that people aren't working on Linux/OSX software or that it isn't possible to run it in a virtual machine running Windows.  I've been working on an open-source planetary imaging application that runs on OSX and Linux and there are other SGL members who have been doing similarly.

I think "what you're used to" also has to be a consideration.  All three OSes are relatively straightforward to use when things are working.  When something isn't working is when the problems start.  As a UNIX user of close to thirty years (and Linux for more than twenty) Windows and OSX drive me nuts when things go wrong.

James

[wxsatuser]

Windows 7 all the way here........seems bombproof and runs all my astro stuff.

This fairly old Compaq laptop I have has a Celeron processor and just 3gig of ram but runs Photoshop CC, PixInsight, DSS

and loads of other stuff.

It's a bit slow by todays standard but will slog on with it until it dies.

[damnut]

W7 supports almost everything!, have a netbook that runs very happily on XP. Laptop w7 and various android.  I am with James above, when WXX of any flavour goes BSOD then its a pain. but not as much pain as supporting a centre that ran on 1100 OS2 devices... See still scarred for life

[bader]

Thank you all for your informative replies, I can learn a lot from your experiences.

I guess I will install W7 along with the OS X.

[Davey-T]

I have a MBP that has a Bootcamp partition for Win 7 Pro, get genuine disc from EBay, trying to migrate astro stuff to Mac but in the meantime all runs happily in the Win bit.

Dave

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I run my astro stuff under Win 8, works fine. All my other stuff is on Linux

[NickK]

The problem is that most companies can't afford to maintain multiple operating system drivers - unless they are fully open sourced specification or drivers.

ASCOM/INDI help in that regard but it makes it difficult for companies to offer new functions and features without complications imposed by ASCOM/INDI frameworks.

Windows is still the main number 1 capture operating system, there's lots of Linux work and OS X work going in.. but I find that unless you're technically minded Linux tends to be a bit more cumbersome. OS X is difficult for different reasons (mainly backwards support of Apple's software tools and versions of the OS older than two releases ago!).

[strutsinaction]

I use an old Sony Vaio running Visa to control my mount and cameras. No issues running EQMOD, PHD2, SGPro, local Astronomy.net, CdC or Stellarium and no issues with the QSI690 and Lodestar X2 ASCOM drivers either.

For PI processing though I use a beefy Win7 i7 laptop.

Regards

John

[Daran]

I guess I'm the oddball Mac user then.

Hardware: I pick all my electronics by driver compatibility. Thats QHY9, QHY10, Lodestar, CEM60 (guided via Lodestar) and some DSLR-RAW shooting.

Capture software: Nebulosity and PHD2, both runing native on OSX. Nebulosity can be scripted (eg capture settings and varying exposures) and supports dithering via controlling PHD2. I used to also do scripted multi-filter sessions but had too many mechanical problems with the filter wheel (so back to manual filter changing). For remote control the MacBook is accessed via WLan (ad hoc networking), using screen sharing from my main Mac (at home) or Iphone/Ipad (on the road). This way I can check the progress without physically disturbing a running session. And I can stay warm...

Post processing: used to be PixInsight and Photoshop, also native. While PixInsight has its strong points (multi-views, scripting! and whatnot), I positively hate the user experience. Feels like it's mutual... Photoshop is just like on Windows. These days I'm writing my own software for the purpose (not recommended, way too much work).

Other stuff: occasionally access to Windows is needed, eg for updating some firmware. Using Parallels is much quicker than rebooting and generally works fine for me.

Greetz,

Harald

[rpineau]

I too use OS X only (TheSky X pro, PHD2, PixInsight, ...). On the hardware side, I also make sure I get OS X supported hardware, wether it be usb devices, mount, camera, filter wheel. Some of these device have actual OS X drivers, some are only supported in the software I use like the FLI filter wheel in TheSkyX Pro.

There are still a huge gap in term of software feature availability on OS X but a lot of progress has been made in the last few years.

Rodolphe.

[damnut]

The point is, pick the OS that suits you. You will always have to check compatibility. If you are a long time W or Apple user you are more liable to be familiar with the foibles of that op sys.

[NickK]

I guess I'm the oddball Mac user then.

Hardware: I pick all my electronics by driver compatibility. Thats QHY9, QHY10, Lodestar, CEM60 (guided via Lodestar) and some DSLR-RAW shooting.

Capture software: Nebulosity and PHD2, both runing native on OSX. Nebulosity can be scripted (eg capture settings and varying exposures) and supports dithering via controlling PHD2. I used to also do scripted multi-filter sessions but had too many mechanical problems with the filter wheel (so back to manual filter changing). For remote control the MacBook is accessed via WLan (ad hoc networking), using screen sharing from my main Mac (at home) or Iphone/Ipad (on the road). This way I can check the progress without physically disturbing a running session. And I can stay warm...

I went one further  

ATIK Cameras + OpenPHD2 + TheSkyX/Nebulosity/own software on OS X for capture, I use EQMac to control the NEQ6, then pixinsight on OSX.

I too use OS X only (TheSky X pro, PHD2, PixInsight, ...). On the hardware side, I also make sure I get OS X supported hardware, wether it be usb devices, mount, camera, filter wheel. Some of these device have actual OS X drivers, some are only supported in the software I use like the FLI filter wheel in TheSkyX Pro.

There are still a huge gap in term of software feature availability on OS X but a lot of progress has been made in the last few years.

Rodolphe.

Yup..