Inquisitor wrote: ↑Wed Apr 14, 2021 6:01 pm
I saw the 5+ version. And with a little reading, it "
seemed" to me someone (not really related to any developer actually adding new code or fixing old bugs) took the open source code, compiled and offered a separate distribution. The price is trivial, and for support that might appeal to some users. Kind of like "Red Hat" Linux. For me... I don't care one bit about support. I do, however, care about feature differences. Do you have any experience with both versions and are able to note significant improvements between those versions? For instance... the UI on 4+ is fine for computers, but really reeks for phones. If the 5+ version has UI to really support phone usage, then I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
Thanks,
Inq
It's actually the other way around (sort of). Dave Register is the creator of OpenCPN. There is nothing in the android ap that he provides that is not in the free version for other operating systems. There is only one version of the source code. Anyone with the tools and expertise in the android ecosystem can get the source code from github and compile it themselves. You are right. It is a lot like Red Hat. He's selling the convenience of a precompiled package and support.
I don't have any experience with the android versions at all. I've only run OpenCPN on Linux (multiple versions) and Windows (XP to Win10). There is a big difference in the features of OpenCPN between version 4 and 5 though. I think you will find the plugins will start to fall behind as well.
OpenCPN design specifies that only the base functions are included in the main program. Extensions to the basic features as navigation software are implemented through plugins. Sometimes those plugins are so useful that they are incorporated into the standard install (kind of a permanent, preinstalled plugin).
Because the plugin ecosystem is so extensive it is not uncommon for the API that allows communication between the plugins and the main program to change to allow a new feature to be implemented. Sometimes that change is so fundamental that the API is not backward compatible and older versions can't use plugins written to the new API.
There are still people using version 4 for various reasons on various platforms. I used it from beta (had to compile it myself) to the release of version 5. I'm a strong proponent of "your boat, your rules". As long as it gets the job done to their satisfaction it's fine with me.