>For anybody new to gliding and PCs who is thinking of buying a computer the >knowledge >that Macs (or Linux machines) are pretty much not used (there are a >few exceptions with >software being written by enthusiasts for those OSs) by >any gliding software for flight >analysis and instrument support is very >useful.
"Pretty much not used" is an odd one on this list. I was rather surprised to see the number of people who replied on the Romeo Zulu topic with the phrase "get a mac". Macs are as much used as PCs. Fortunately you don't have to own a horrible windows box to run most gliding related software. There are several ways to do this a couple of which don't involve even involve the nauseating experience of using Windows itself. In fact there are a few advantages in running a virtual machine instead of the real thing. Not the only one being that you can store your flights, waypoints and tasks on a 'nix based operating system which is not subject to the vulnerabilities of Microsoft software. You can back up the entire virtual machine running whatever software you need to a single DVD or you can freely copy the entire virtual machine to another computer with all the data and file system identical. You can install a complete set of software onto a virtual machine (even in evaluation mode) and then trash the lot and start again from the backup when your virtual machine gets one of those wormy virussy things which seem to plague the product of the evil empire as soon as a connection to the net is made. Since your data files are not on this partition, you don't lose anything either. Nor do you have to buy repeated copies of some outdated operating system to run on more than one computer. Nice. >Like it or not, PCs are a part of gliding nowadays. If you want to participate >at a higher level >you need to get familiar with operating them. "Like it or not, computers are part of gliding nowadays..." There is no requirement to own a windows box. Errrr higher level?... Windows XP?.... I have not seen too many people advocating using Vista here. In fact the folks who commented suggested using XP, which is almost a decade old. Gasp! I don't know where LX Navigation fit in, but they take the time to note that they do NOT use a version of Windows CE, they use Linux. So the title of this thread should perhaps be changed to Leopard and computing? Or Snow Leopard and computing? Go the Geeks!! _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
