Mark Pearson wrote:

Hi all,


A friends got a boat & said friend is thinking of going electronic with
the charts. The dedicated bits of equipment aren't desired (or
affordable) with a laptop and or a pda being multifunctional. The
software is always a. MS Windows only & b.silly money AFAIK
Linux based 'Autoroute' type programs exist but has anyone experience of
marine software?
Googling brings up a dead link to one Linux offering which is some 2/3
years dated.
I guess Wine is an option but apparantly some of these (M$) based
programs use 'dongol's(?) which may cause a problem?
Has anyone broken away from the flock and tried something different?
(i.e. non M$ based & therefore stable...)


Cheers,
Mark.

Mark,
Have you taken a look at http://www.chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov? They have a
"historic" chart section that uses a sid viewer. There is a Linux port of
the reader available for free. A historic chart is any chart that has had
a new release. I use the Southern California Historic charts with no
problem. Also the Coast Pilot is available from the same site. This will
give you the charts but nothing for autoroute.

Randy
foesgthATpacbell.net