AOPA Flight Planner - Microsoft only?

Andrew Gideon wrote in message agonline.com...
I tried to go to the AOPA Flight Planning web page today, and found that the
only option remaining is to download a Microsoft-only application. This
seems annoying.

indeed. I prefer to use a real computer myself, but there are some simple
solution: commercial solutions like I use myself (running AOPA Flight
Planning under either VMware or VirtualPC -- the former making it possible
to run it from Linux, among other things, the latter from Macintosh); or
another free solution: AOPA Flight Planning works just fine under Wine
(under linux);

just tried it a minute ago (I didn't explore the whole functionality under
Wine yet, but it looks promising); I also tried under knoppix (since I
have a very customized Linux setup, I wanted to be sure the thing would
work under a 'standard' set up easily reproducible by someone else); and
the thing fired up just as advertised.

info about knoppix can be found here (it is a very neat Debian based
distribution of Linux that boots from the CD, i.e., neat for those
who'd like to try what a real OS looks like without having to
install anything on their PC): http://www.knoppix.org/

and info about Wine can be found he
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wine/ (note that Wine seem to work
also under MacOS though I haven't tried it myself);

oh, and to be complete, info about VMware can be found he
http://www.vmware.com/ and VirtualPC here (Connectix having been bought
by Microsoft):
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/product...?pid=virtualpc

hope it helps,

--Sylvain

AOPA should have just left it as a Web application. I don't see why they
needed to make ANY platform-specific download. I'll just use
Aeroplanner on my Macs, Suns, Linux-boxes, and Windows PCs.

--- Jay



--

__!__
Jay and Teresa Masino ___(_)___
http://www2.ari.net/jmasino ! ! !
http://www.oceancityairport.com
http://www.oc-adolfos.com

In article ine.com, Andrew
Gideon wrote:
snip

The inevitable comments about how non-MS Windows users are in the
minority is going to now erupt, with the usual insensitive clods [0]
going on about how those who don't use an MS platform are in a minority
and don't matter (when it would be so easy to make it multi-platform -
say, by making it web-based).

Anyone who goes on about non Microsoft users being a minority, therefore
justifying not going to the extra effort (in this case, there would
probably be no extra effort had they started off with a multiplatform
system in the first place by, say, making it web based) are exceedingly
short sighted.

Why are they short sighted? Is Microsoft's monopoly going to collapse in
the next year or two? Well, probably not. MS will still have 90% of the
desktop probably in 5 years time. However, the desktop is going to get
less and less important for this kind of thing. Handheld devices are
going to get more and more important *especially for an activity that is
as inherently mobile as flying and the need to flight plan*.

The handheld world has seen what Microsoft did to the desktop world, and
are determined not to let it happen to them. Microsoft themselves are a
minority player in the mobile phone world. Symbian and J2ME are much
bigger, and the majority of mobile phones and devices of their ilk run
one or the other or both.
The prices of GPRS and EGRPS phones are dropping all the time.
Even on the few Windows-based handheld devices, they can't actually run
applications compiled for desktop Windows. The instruction set for the
CPU is different, and bloated desktop applications don't sit well on a
low powered handheld device (where web applications run fine, so long as
they aren't bloated out with needless Javascript and graphics)
With this kind of application, more and more people are going to want to
do it on their mobile phone/PDA especially for something that is
inherently mobile like travelling by plane! Travelling by light plane
especially is something we do 'travelling light'. I'd (and I'm sure many
others - certainly all my pilot friends over here) would rather carry a
capable cell phone to get our weather radar rather than a bulky laptop.
On my Nokia 6820 phone, I have web short cuts to METARS, TAFs, weather
radar, synoptic charts etc. and it's ideal for on the move (like GA,
there's compromises like the small screen). A flight planner on the web
would be excellent especially if it was designed such as not to exclude
mobile users. Making it a Windows desktop only application
excludes mobile users.

By making their flight planner Windows-only, they have excluded the vast
majority of mobile users. I predict that certainly in Britain, the
number of non-Wintel (E)GPRS phones will rival the number of desktop PCs
within the next couple of years. It'll probably happen in the US too -
for everyone going on about how basic cellphone service is in the US -
guess where I just bought a tri-band GPRS phone (there are plenty of
GSM/GPRS providers now in the US, T-Mobile is one, I think Cingular
might be GSM, BICBW).

And Jay Honeck, this means you, you'd do well to have a version of your
website that's accessable for mobile users :-) Because guess what -
people will want to search for a hotel on their cell phone sooner than
you think!

[0] Just kidding.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Andrew,

Has this issue been raised to AOPA and ignored? Is something in the works
for the rest of us? Anyone here know what's going on?

I think the reason for the windows-only Flight Planner is, that the just use
a scaled down version of Jeppesen FliteStar for rendering/showing the maps.

Regards

Kai

Peter Duniho wrote:

Don't get me wrong, I think MacOS and Linux are great options, and each has
lots to offer in their own way. It's just that when someone goes around
claiming that those options are inherently secure while Windows is
inherently not secure, it's obvious the hamster's not engaged upstairs.

Windows is insecure enough that the US Army migrated to Apple software based
servers to improve security of it's network several year ago.

The funny part is that we have one minority (pilots) bashing another
minority (users of a non-MS OS). I wonder if the minority still doesn't
matter when it's pilots?

mark

"Dylan Smith" wrote in message
...
In article ine.com,
Andrew
Gideon wrote:
snip

The inevitable comments about how non-MS Windows users are in the
minority is going to now erupt, with the usual insensitive clods [0]
going on about how those who don't use an MS platform are in a minority
and don't matter (when it would be so easy to make it multi-platform -
say, by making it web-based).

snip

[0] Just kidding.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Umm. It can't be all about the money - it's a free planner!

I'm not sure why AOPA needs to sponsor any kind of a planner. I presume that
the motiviation is to encourage pilots to get better briefings to reduce
accident rates. I just don't see that the new planner is going to pull in
that many additional pilots.

Personally, I wish that AOPA would work to improve the DUATS web interface
and to encourage improvements to Cirrus's client-driven planner - at someone
else's expense.

--
-------------------------------
Travis
"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...
If the market was worth the development cost then they would do it. It is
all about money. No one gives a #*&^( about your opinion that one OS is
'better' than another.

Last I looked, AOPA was based in the United States, not some lunatic's
idea
of a socialist paradise that requires equal effort be spent on all
operating
systems, no matter how few people use each one.

Aeroplanner does offer some interesting features that AOPA's planner does
not but it is just too slow and cumbersome to be really useful. But then,
why should AOPA be competing with the for-profit planners? Why is free,
advanced planning a plank for AOPA?

If I want to quickly check weather, going directly to the CS DUATS web site
and interpretting the text output is still the fastest. I'll use AOPA's free
planner to plan long cross-countries but even then, it is not a critical
piece of my planning.

AOPA - please use my money to keep airports open and ADs to a safe minimum.
--
-------------------------------
Travis
"Jay Masino" wrote in message
...

AOPA should have just left it as a Web application. I don't see why they
needed to make ANY platform-specific download. I'll just use
Aeroplanner on my Macs, Suns, Linux-boxes, and Windows PCs.

--- Jay



--

__!__
Jay and Teresa Masino ___(_)___
http://www2.ari.net/jmasino ! ! !
http://www.oceancityairport.com
http://www.oc-adolfos.com

"Travis Marlatte" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Umm. It can't be all about the money - it's a free planner!

Free to endusers that are AOPA members. Certainly you cannot believe there
were no development costs.

Andrew,

Has this issue been raised to AOPA and ignored?


Yes, IIRC. They mentioned upon introduction that this is a very costly
thing to start with and that they'd rather deliver the service "only"
to the 92 or so percent of AOPA members using Windows than not have it
at all.

Personally, I have to agree with both AOPA and Peter. The vast majority
of AOPA members would have to consider a Mac/Linux-or-whatever version
a colossal waste of their money. And the "security by minority" scheme
doesn't work.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)