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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Stellarmate vs own compiling

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Hello,
i´m new and would like to know what are the advantages of buying Stellarmate instead of compiling indilib/ekos by my own on a standart RaspPi? I´m asking because a Pi, even with all acessoires i need cost around 60-70€ while Stellarmate is 200€ here in Germany.

Kind Regards and CS Frank
5 years 1 month ago #34534

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The Stellarmate OS is offered for download (for $49 I think). So if you don’t mind spending the time and have the necessary expertise you could save this cost. An alternative INDI OS that might be interesting to you is Astroberry.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Frank Sackenheim
5 years 1 month ago #34538

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I also used the Stellarmate download with an RPI. I already had. Its a very comprehensive build and well documented. I rekon its saved me much more than $49 of time. I did try Astroberry about 9 months ago and found it lacking. Once you have Stellarmate installed you can keep it up-to date with the standard EKOS updates.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Frank Sackenheim
5 years 1 month ago #34548

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Thank You!

As i´m new to all this i was confused. I thought someone else is trying to make money out of this project, now i found out that Stellarmate is by the same Author.
Ok i see, so i could see it as a service fee and donation if i buy the StellarMate OS. On the other Hand i like to challenge myself always with new installations. We´ll see.
Thanks so far.
Frank
5 years 1 month ago #34575

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I am sorry Frank but this is a pet peeve of mine. This belief that software should be free is impoverishing a generation of developers. Tens of thousands of lines of carefully crafted code that took years to develop. Why do we not demand that telescope manufacturers give us free telescopes, mounts, and cameras? Did you get your automobile for free?

This is not meant to be a personal attack. It is just a commentary on a greater societal problem.
5 years 1 month ago #34580

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hi,

i dont take this personal. and i see the point. but at first this is an open source project isn´t it? maybe i got the idea of open source wrong?

but again, i don´t disagree with you. and if i would have the need of having stellarmate urgently, i would have no problem buying it. as i bought all my other softwares for astroimaging.
as i stated in my recent post, i thought that someone else is making money out of this project until i realized that it is the main author himself who offers stellarmate.

cs frank
Last edit: 5 years 1 month ago by Frank Sackenheim.
5 years 1 month ago #34584

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Wait your telling me that free software is impoverishing an entire generation of developers?

LOL ... uhmm no its not... developers are some of the highest paid people on the planet. Software Engineering is still one of the highest in demand jobs on the planet.

Ya know what's impoverishing "developers"? The fact that thy are coders who think that they are developers because "they know javascript" muddling the market. I have 5 to 6 people out of 10 who call themselves "python coders" who can't tell me when and why a python script should "import sys" in an interview.... THIS is your societal problem.

IF someone doesn't want to charge for thier software... impressive, good on them... if they do, then I will probably pay for it. If they ask for a donation or something they will probably get it.

I was curious of the differences myself, doesn't mean I won't just buy the hardware and software bundled... well actually i probably won't because I kind of like the idea of having my own version of a case for the Pi. I will probably just buy the Smartmate OS anyway, because he went thru the trouble of packaging it up and would like to make a some value from his efforts, but I too wanted to ensure its not "packageware" something that WAS a real scourge on our society years ago.
5 years 1 month ago #34947

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Everyone is an expert when it comes to things they don't know. In the late 80s I was chief architect of systems consisting of 200,000 lines of C++ code. One day the CEO excitedly said that he was learning Visual Basic Scripting and he wanted to help. "Help" turned into "let me tell you how to do this." That ended that relationship.

The point in my original post was to highlight how differently consumers perceive software-only products versus hardware products. They make judgements based on the question of duplication vs recreation. When people get hold of software, they ask "how difficult is it to break copy-protection?" People will gladly pursue that path. But when people get hold of a physical object, they ask "how difficult is it for me to recreate this?" Not many people have a machine shop or the skills to operate it. Some people think that $10 for a course at Udemy will be all they need to recreate complex software.

An acquaintance of mine developed some fantastic software. He asks for a paltry $10 license fee. Some people cry over the price and then when they decide to pay it, they constantly bombard him with new "features". Now the developer has carpal tunnel. In my experience software-only products are a losing proposition unless the pay-off is the prospect of gaining fame.
5 years 1 month ago #34972

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We are getting a bit of subject but I think its a matter of developer choice. I applaud those open source developers who build open source code, it is often a collective endeavor that benefits a lot of people and provides the reward of contribution to others. If they ask for contributions that is reasonable, but I assume not required.
On the other hand their are commercial software developers and as a senior executive in a large database company; a Network software company and a games software company we made sure we had robust licencing strategies that ensured for the most part we got paid. We also incurred high costs in commercial promotion, support, consulting etc. Sometimes we got ripped off, but it was a small percentage . If it got out of hand we took legal action.
So you really have to decide what sort of developer you are, but don't try and go into the commercial world with an open source architecture and without commercial protection.
As for the consumer they too have a choice you can buy a commercial product like APT or Maxim or with a bit of effort go the open source route with EKOS/Stellarmate. Neither is more correct.
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5 years 1 month ago #34973

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Yeah its a tough dichotomy right now, I mean I get what you are saying... but look at it from the other perspective... say you make a bit of code that 5000 people like and pay 10$ for... that's 50,000 bucks for maybe a months worth of work.

Imagine making a physical object 5000 times and charging 10$ for it.

That is the perspective people come with when they think of software. What they don't think about is that its not 5000... its more like 500

and 6 months of work...

Ultimately one of the things Microsoft Azure taught me about the Opensource community was not actually that "free" software was bad, but that sometimes I am wasting my life trying to solve a problem that I could pay someone to solve with a team of coders, and a pyramid of codebase to back them.

I don't think there is a right answer per say, I think if you look at the Opensource world you will find that it is WHY software engineers are in such high demand, without it I would suggest that much of what we have would simply not exist. Cloud, IoT, SmartPhones, and many of the things we enjoy today exist because of that concept.

Things that without opensource would have been to expensive to create the endeavors for. However, I have also seen severe Dev Burnout in this industry because of the drive to "be brilliant" rather than better. What worries me alot more in our industry is the latest generation of workers "doing it for the money"

This is going to absolutely ruin this field, as it has just about every field. Be is legal, medical, business. When you see a hive like mentality of people who don't really care, but really like the idea of the money.... man in 10 years its gonna be ugly.
5 years 1 month ago #34977

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Gentlemen, this really interesting discussion but totally off topic. Why don't we keep to the housekeeping rules, please.
5 years 1 month ago #34980

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