If Google Earth is not enough, to have a globe with different maps and completely free, you can try another program available for Windows Linux and Mac . It is Marble, an interactive 3D atlas which reproduces a virtual simulation of the world globe and which can be used to obtain all kinds of geographic information.
The interactive application has different characteristics compared to Google Earth 6 which certainly remains the most beautiful program to see and use as a virtual world globe .
Marble instead has the ambition to be more informative thanks to the presence of free and updated maps, integration with Wikipedia and navigator functionality to be used to find roads around the world.
After installing KDE Marble the virtual globe, in Italian, the planet Earth is displayed in a similar way to what is seen in Google Earth.
The interface shows the controls on the left side of the screen and you can use the mouse to rotate the globe and zoom in on an atlas point.
With the minimap at the top, you can quickly switch from one place to another.
Marble works with the computer connected to the internet but it is possible to save portions of maps for offline consultation by clicking on the relevant option from the File menu.
The control bar on the left side is divided into 5 sections:
Navigator with the Search field that makes it possible to search for any road in the world.
Legend in which to read the meanings of colors and symbols displayed on the globe.
Map view that allows you to choose between different atlases available, each with different maps.
Current location to enable or disable location tracking.
Itinerary where you can plan the road route as it happens in Google Maps.
The most important and best part of the Marble globe are the different Map views available .
The default view is the Atlas (ATLAS) which shows important countries and cities with a topographic map of seas and mountains.
If you enlarge the atlas you will notice that there are no roads, highways and other landmarks.
The streets are instead in the Open Street Map which shows the updated road map of the whole world.
Alternatively there are really interesting maps such as the historical atlas showing the borders of the countries in the 1700s, the satellite view where you can also study the weather situation in the world, the night view with all the artificial lights, the view of the temperatures, of precipitation.
Going to the File menu you can download other maps from the official website.
Also from the Map View menu, you can view the atlas in the shape of the 3D globe or as a two-dimensional plan map.
You can also go to the Atlas of the Moon to see the details of the lunar map.
For each point of the map, each country, street, road and city, you can click to see a detail card with the exact coordinates, the population of the city and the card, if available, of the encyclopedic Wikipedia site.
Another interesting feature is the possibility to download new maps and globes, by going to the File menu and clicking on Download Maps you go to the program website where there are some atlases available.
Once the files have been downloaded, you must unzip them and then, the folder with the map files must be copied to the program folder, identifying the maps folder.
From the View menu it is possible to simulate the flow of time and the position of the Sun on Earth.
