Fedora Astronomy Live is a freely distributed and open source operating system, a special Live CD edition of the Fedora Linux distribution designed from the ground up for people interested in astronomy, as well as professional astronomers.
Availability, supported platforms, boot options
It is available for download as Live DVD ISO images of approximately 2GB in size, supporting only 64-bit (x86_64) hardware platforms. The ISOs can be burned onto blank DVD discs or written to USB flash drives of 2GB or higher capacity.
From the minimal boot menu you can start the live system with default settings and see what hardware components work and if it’s worth installing, because, after all, this is the main purpose of a Live CD media.
More advanced options, such as the ability to boot an existing operating system that is installed on the first disk drive of your computer or running a memory diagnostic test, can be easily accessed from the Troubleshooting entry.
Powerful desktop environment and comprehensive set of astronomy apps
GNOME is in charge of the graphical session in this special Live CD edition of the Fedora Linux operating system. It comprises of a single taskbar located on the upper side or the screen, from where users can open applications, interact with running programs, or switch between virtual workspaces.
Default applications include the Empathy instant messenger client, Evolution email and calendar client, Cheese webcam viewer, GNOME Boxes virtualization software, Mozilla Firefox web browser, Gedit text editor, Rhythmbox music player, Shotwell image viewer and organizer, Transmission torrent downloader and Totem video player.
Bottom line
In conclusion, Fedora Astronomy Live CD is a cool and modern operating system that strives to provide users with the latest and greatest astronomy software. It supports a plethora of languages and can be installed on mid-range or high-end computers.
