It differs from Linux in a number of respects and Like most Linux distributions, is UNIX in all but registered name. It is POSIX compliant and has its roots in the Berkley System Distribution UNIX variant. Much of the FreeBSD codebase is incorporated into the Darwin operating system, the basis for MacOS.
Linux is also POSIX compliant but does not contain any UNIX code. Linux was written from scratch to be UNIX-like and so it is not surprising that there are many similarities between FreeBSD and Linux.
FreeBSD is probably the most secure operating system in existence with Linux being virtually as secure.
Nicola has compiled AstroDMx Capture for FreeBSD. She has implemented the same DSLR USB tethered cameras as in the Linux, Windows and MacOS versions of AstroDMx Capture. She has also implemented the DMK 21AU04.AS and the DFK 21AU04.AS astronomy cameras.
A Celestron Omni XLT 150 f/5 Newtonian with a direct attachment for a DSLR camera and a motor focuser was mounted on a Celestron AVX mount. A USB-tethered Canon 4000D DSLR camera was attached to the scope.
AstroDMx Capture for FreeBSD was used to capture 45 x 45s exposures of M27 with matching darkframes. The software was running on FreeBSD with the XFCE desktop environment.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture gathering data on M27
The best 42 images were dark-frame corrected and stacked in Autostakkert! running in Wine. The final image was then post processed in the Gimp 2.10.
Screenshot of The FreeBSD desktop and an M27 image being displayed in an image viewer
Final image of M27
It was important for this experiment that the image capture and the image processing were all done on the FreeBSD computer.
The capture system is working properly as is software running in Wine.
AstroDMx Capture will likely never support the range of cameras that are supported by the versions for the other three operating systems because there are no SDKs available for the cameras on FreeBSD. Nevertheless, the ability to control supported DSLR cameras with USB tethering and the bonus of the DMk and DFK cameras, means that an eventual release of AstroDMx Capture for FreeBSD may be worthwhile.
In the meantime, Nicola is working on the Linux, MacOS and Windows versions before they are released.
AstroDMx Capture for Windows, macOS or Linux (Including Raspberry Pi) can be downloaded freely here:
