Rocketry programs and Android vs Windows

[jackman]

Greetings fellow rocketeers! Most of the apps and programs that I use these days run on Android. About the only thing left that I need a Windows PC for is RockSim or Open Rocket. I'll probably keep a Windows PC going for many years yet but I've been considering the idea of a Chrome Box rather than buying a new PC. There's lots of discussion on the Internet and the Android vs Windows debate is very lively but much of the discussion is noise, untrustworthy, or focused on the extreme gamers. So I thought I'd put it up for discussion here in hopes we can get some high value opinion that is focused on our rocketry needs. In the meantime I've upgraded my rocket laptop with a solid state drive (SSD) which is a huge improvement. In fact RockSim v10 opens almost instantaneously now, even though my laptop is 10 years old. For only $30 it's an upgrade I highly recommend.

Doing a forum search turns up some earlier discussions but they seem a bit dated now so I'm hoping there's some new things to report. As always, your comments, opinions, and suggestions are welcome and thank you.

Cheers,
Jackman - NAR/TRA L3

 

[Handeman]

I'm not sure exactly what you are asking, but I'm probably not the person to ask this of. I recently updated my PC to a desktop gaming pc. I added a second 24" monitor when I started working from home because of the Covid. I'm considering a third monitor for all the Office 365 apps I run. With that, my phone is an android but I only use if for IM and phone calls. Very few apps.

My opinion, if you don't need the mobility, and can use most of those apps from home, I would stick with the PC. You can get a very powerful PC for the price of an Android mobile device. Just the fact you can use the standard web pages instead of the mobile web pages is enough for me. The mobile web pages have a lot less functionality than the full pages usually do. Try to drag and drop to a new route on Google Maps on the mobile version. You can't do it. Easy on the full page.

 

[neil_w]

For rocket stuff, you really want a Windows PC or a Mac. Android or Chromebooks can do some things, but not some of the most important things (e.g., Rocksim or OpenRocket). Allegedly there are ways to finagle Java onto a Chromebook, but why bother.

 

[cbwho]

Open rocket runs on Android!

 

[neil_w]

Open rocket runs on Android!

The OR version for Android is old and unmaintained, i.e. it will not be receiving an update when the new OR is released.