In article ,
Lisa Collins wrote:

Wayne.B wrote:

On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 16:42:29 +0200, "Meindert Sprang"
wrote:

I think many people don't use Linux on their boat *because* there is no
decent nav package.

=============================================

And because it's a whole new learning curve to climb, not the most
user friendly system in the world, and there's not much help
available in the world outside of technology shops. All that, plus
the lack of a standardized graphical user interface, means that its
going to be a while before Linux shows up on our laptops.

It may show up embedded in dedicated hardware however where we can't
see it.

I have to agree with you here. Although Linux certainly has critical mass
on the server market, with a desktop penetration of about 1%, this is not
viable as a consumer product. Perhaps if there is sufficient interest a
bunch of us could develop our own opensource chartplotter software.




i note that HP is now shipping a laptop with SuSE 9.x
INSTALLED FROM THE FACTORY

so you don't have to wait for it to "turn up on your laptop"

-mo