[DB1]

Gordo:
Too bad. Your experience was completely avoidable. The program displays all the old raster charts you used in v4.1. The new images of vector and 3D are certainly an additional charge but offer whole new chart formats that have clear advantages.
There are over 100 new features in 6.5 that vastly improve the program beyond the old v4.1. Great route planning, quilting, better GPS connectivity, crystal view and so many more.
You mention crashes. and reloading. You have idnetified the very reason this is and all nav software is no more than an AIDE to navigation. It is never the thing prudent mariners "trusts their lives to." The Windows O/S is what it is. You can always reinstall the program but that is rarely nessary. Crashes are very rare in VNS and reflectn an O/S problem most of the time.
The site key issue was hardly a real life or death problem. The program will run for thirty days with out a site key! And you can always log on to the Web and get a site key 24/7! They even issue you three site keys to cover all of your PC''s. The tech support call ia a last resort.
Your last sentence is bad advice. VNS is easily the most popular Nav software on the market. It has won the NMEA award for best product two years in a row now. I''m sure your experience could be addressed given the right time and opportunity.