i'm just responding to this thread in general, not to the specific post
i hit reply to.

i think the perfect laptop for a boat is the 50-100$us one you get from
ebay, the old toshiba is my choice. yes i know! crazy you say, who
wants an ancient laptop when there is so much new fancy stuff out
there. surely you must have the fanciest best one since you are the
fanciest and best. well, let's consider that ...

- you won't worry when onshore if someone is stealing it
- how much cpu power does it actually take to do gps maps, not much!
- it has real serial ports on it instead of incompatible usb/serial
converters
- it's really inexpensive, meaning you can have TEN of them, one to use
everyday and NINE backups if you want
- it has an easy to replace widely available hard drive
- you can get more memory for it on ebay too
- it is ok if the natives spend days playing tetris on it and get
citrus juice on the keys
- you can move the hard drive to another computer if the laptop dies
- or you can take the drive out altogether and make a diskcopy of it
- if it dies due to salt air, who freaking cares, get another one
- if your boat gets hit by lightning and it dies, who cares, get
another one
- how much cpu power does it take to write email anyway
- if the king of bunga bunga bunga really likes it ... well, just give
it to him
- you can leave it onshore in your hotel room without worrying about
someone taking it
- you can hike it through the jungle and not worry if it gets rained on
- you can use it on deck without worrying about the sun damaging it
- it is ok to loan it to someone and not really care if they give it
back
- did i mention you can buy TEN for the price of ONE cheap new one ?
- you can buy a few of them and still have money left for backup radios
and backup gps
- you can experiment, who cares if that HF tuner puts out so much RFI
it burns it up
- it's ok to dance pagan dances around it, ok, well, i guess you can do
that with any laptop
- you can ride with it on a bicycle and not worry about vibrations,
because, who cares
- it's ok to let kids play with it, because .. who cares
- nobody gets yelled at for touching it, so, they never figure out just
how much of a jerk you are
- when bored you can play "slide the laptop" across the deck and giggle
and snicker
- you can dress it up with feathers and fur and things and it won't get
angry
- it is ok to sit your drink on it, or your sandwich, like a small
table
- you can have fun on your trip instead of being a little laptop nazi
- if it breaks you can actually take it apart and fix it (try that with
a new one)
- an old laptop is gracious, happy not to be sent to the island of
misfit laptops where the abominable snowman lives
- you can make up stories about how many times it has saved your life,
and people might believe them
- it has an actual real printer port on it (not just usb), a printer
port that is compatible with printers all around the entire world
- it has an actual floppy drive on it, compatible with floppy drives
all around the entire world
- if it's stormy and water is splashing around you can put the laptop
in a clear plastic bag and play solitaire with it in between reef
changes and still keep a watch
- etc, etc ...

i think if you spend some time considering the merits of the 50-100$us
ebay boat laptop you will come to see the great wisdom of it.