After hearing great things about Marble, I decided to install it in Kubuntu (should work fine in Ubuntu/Edubunu too). It was easy to setup via Adept/Synaptic. It took very little space and was surprisingly feature packed. I was able to zoom in with considerable detail to Dallas, TX.
While it lacks 3D code, my EM64T happily rendered a faithful reproduction of a globe without great delay. However, I was able to identify where the 3D support would enhance performance. There’s a few features, and everything is visual, so I’ll highlight those with some screen shots from the program.
The following screen shows N. America at night. It’s interesting to use this to see this as an indicator of population density. Consider the sprawl across The United States up until the west side of the Midwest, with a few specs on California.
Below, you’ll see how Marble is kind enough to distinguish the North Pole from Magnetic North. Also notice how you’re able to select Navigation and Topics on the left. Navigation provides options for Zooming and finding locales. The Topics offers the Atlas, Earth at Night, and Satellite views.
I really like the rich, full colors of the Satellite Topic, and this is a great picture contrasting the size of the Pacific Ocean to the tiny, unlabeled (in this view at least) specks that are Hawaii. You’ll see that it has labeled Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea though.
Overall, it’s a really nice program using totally free and open source code. It’s very fun and friendly to use as a means of exploring our Earth.
Stumble it! 
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