Onboard computer with linix

[Conachair]

Open CPN, Zygrib, Google Earth, LibreOffice (for excel spreadsheets, word docs), VLC (for videos, MP3 etc).

Only thing I can't get better than in MS os is Photoshop, Excel is marginally better than Calc.

4 computers - all dual boot into Suse 11.4-12.1, Win XP and/or Win7.

Linux gives <40% endurance than the Microsoft OS, is more stable, loads faster.

I'd agree that the rpm based distros are more difficult to load, but tend to be better servers.

If you're installing onto an existing MS box, you have 2 virtual machines set up each with their own partitions on the HDD. It's easy enough to visit both and swap things as and when you want. I've now dropped all *.doc files and use *.odt - longer to open, but take up 20-30% of the space.

haven't found anything close to jvcomm for rtty & weatherfax, the other digi ham modes don't seem to have anything decent either. between Wfax, rtty & the nasa navtex engine was reason enough to perservere with getting xp on there.