Until recently we were a little behind the times. We
upgraded to XP just as Microsoft was launching Vista. We figured if they are
ready to move on, we are ready to move up!! Don't go with anything less than
Windows 2000 because almost anything you plug into the computer, like your
friends camera or USB stick, will need some special driver and you won't
have it! XP makes system repairs much easier, but only if have the Windows
XP installation CD available. Vista is much too new to bring to sea,
especially for the navigation computer, most navigation software is not
supported.
But then again you don't need the latest and greatest for our
typical applications. A lot of communication equipment that interfaces to
the computer still ships with a RS-232 serial port connector other wise
known as a
legacy ports. I think my IBM
T-22 laptop is one
of the last Thinkpad machines to have a serial port and it was released in
late 2001. Marine computing doesn't need the speed, wizbang graphics and all
the gadgets that allow people to live in the "connected world", because that
is not the world we live in.
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