I'm toying with the idea of getting a 500GB HDD and installing linux and ISIS on there again. However, I've got a few questions before I do, and hopefully this is the right place to ask them.

1) Does ISIS work with current versions of Linux? The versions that are explicitly supported (Suse 10.1 and Red Hat 5.4) are quite old, and I couldn't even find the installers for them on the OpenSUSE and Red Hat websites. Would it work with other distributions (e.g. Ubuntu?). ISTR having issues with getting the right libraries installed last time I tried using ISIS (which was 5 or 6 years ago). Does anyone here run ISIS on a modern version of Linux, and have you encountered any problems?

2) Is there a standalone Windows-based program that I can use to open cub files output by ISIS?

(I guess a third - rhetorical - question is "why is there not a Windows version of ISIS yet?" )

Dealing with Linux is for me about as much fun as pulling my own teeth out, but the only reason I brave it is to use ISIS so I would like to know if I'm going to run into a lot of problems trying to get it to work. I'm fairly technically competent when it comes to windows (not so much with Linux), but I think should be able to figure out any basic Linux compatibility issues.

The best place for these questions would be https://isis.astrogeology.usgs.gov/IsisSupport/

I've posted my questions there too, thanks. Though if anyone has any input here, please do post .

I thought about buying a used Mac just to play around with Isis. That way, I wouldn't have to deal with Linux.
I get the feeling that the program has a high learning curve, so unless I could justifiy actually needing it, I've hesitated. But I'd probably just buy a Mac. (Isis has a System X version for Mac).

Tom

To answer #2...I've tried (and failed) to get cub files to open in Earth-based GIS systems like Erdas IMAGINE. To get them to at least partially open in those programs, I converted the cub files to TIFFs. Otherwise, if you just want to view the files and not really continue manipulating them, just export them as JPEGs (or whatever) once you open the cub files in Qview.

When I must use ISIS, I use the Macs at work. It makes me feel dirty inside.

the rhel5.4 64 bit is the most stable
i am running that one on OpenSUSE 11.3 -64 bit and CentOS 5.5 -64 bit

and runs fine except tor the annoying 2 gig max file size for importing "raw" data
i need to start building the source .
isis3 ran fine in Arch 32 bit and fedora 11 32bit ( do not know about fedora 13 or 14 )