One of the core activities of Starlink is identifying good software and making it available to the UK astronomical community. The most visible manifestation of this effort is the Starlink Software Collection (SSC) which is managed, distributed and supported by the Starlink Project. A large amount of the software was written by members of the Project, but some of it comes from outside sources. Briefly put, it exists to provide the UK astronomy community with the tools they need to get the job done.
By providing the software within a stable computing environment, Starlink saves its users from the need to acquire an in-depth knowledge of source code, compilers or linking. They just sit down at a terminal and everything is virtually ready to go.
Clearly, at Starlink nodes the most important resource is the SSC and you will find that most nodes have a large proportion of it installed. However, if you find an item that you need is missing from your system, just ask the system manager to add it.
The SSC is extensive, providing packages for a wide variety of purposes including:
Preparing to Observe