Thanks werper. Nice Summary !
It would not make sense for me to argue about the points on which I agree, so I want to comment on a couple or three things, that I do not see clear, in case you find it useful if planning an update or correction of the main text.
I am not sure of which is the best setup for indi and clients.
Myself I use everything on the raspi.
It would be really interesting to do a survey among forum users to ascertain which is the most common or the most efficient setup.
Maybe forum administrators/moderators can indicate if they also find this survey interesting and feasible ?
You may want to add a reference to the place where you found it is strongly recommended one setup over the other.
I would say people with zero experience on Linux is going to have a few difficult days...
Even with the commodity of internet search, they are to have a though time trying to catch the correct answer among the noise of a bunch of outdated (sometimes wrong) pages.
I agree in that one of the aims of Ekos is to be user-friendly, but as suggested in the second part of the above sentence, it is not so intuitive for the new user.
I would like to be available
* a central, extense, updated (user) documentation manual.
[Update] Just today the stellarmate manual was updated
and is available here
* a Help button in each EKOS tab bringing updated documentation on the meaning, characteristics and best use of the different parameters and their interactions.
Tool-tips are necessary and of great help, but probably not enough for a non veteran user.
As I see in the forum there is many people still using raspi3, but many others, and those starting from zero, they use raspi4, often with 4 GB and a few with 8 GB. In fact, stellarmate gadget has been superseded by stellarmate plus gadget.
Also It is not rare for raspi 4 to use a fan or an efficient heat-dissipator box.
And you need a sdcard, etc, etc.
Overall the cost of a working raspi SBC is a 'bit' higher than $35.
Hope you find my comments of value
joaquin