Same here - I have owned EIGHT Garmins, my first was a GPS III in 1996. I now have an Edge 1000 for cycling, a 3790T for walking around foreign cities, a Nuvi 500 which has Ordnance Survey rights of way on it and a Nuvicam for the car which has Lifetime European map updates and an HD dashcam. All great tools as useful as my Iridium satellite phone as they will all work where there is no phone signal.
Is it Garmin shit or TomTom shit?
Ironic as the satnav itself probably runs on Linux? ;-(
But that is another / classic example of where Linux, whilst perfectly fine as a Word Processor or Web terminal <g>, isn't 'ok' when it comes to many other facets, like upgrading your SatNav or running iTunes, upgrading your phone / PC BIOS or your vehicle OBD software ...
I actually rang Garmin on this very subject and they told me 'they had no plans to support Linux in the near future' and who can blame them, given (like Brexit) it isn't just one thing (millions of DTE / Distro / Kernel combinations, unlike Windows / OSX) and currently (still) only represents ~5% of the desktop market. ;-(
It's good but it's not Carling (even!). ;-)
Cheers, T i m
Could it be that I have been unlucky (unwise?) in buying the cheapest model on the market. The internal battery lasts about 45 seconds (compared to one hour on the previous model) and the start-up sequence seems to last for minutes. It just seems underpowered.
Yeah, add another layer of complexity to cater for the fact that your preferred OS isn't compatible with the rest of the world. ;-(
No, a better solution is to keep yer old mainframe *nix OS for yer nerdy word processing and programming and just have a real Windows PC to take up all the slack of the things that Linux can't do.
Like, how do I manage the unification of my Logitech mouse and keyboard on one interface under Linux?
Cheers, T i m
My Nuvicam's battery lasts about 5 minutes as it is NOT designed to be operated outside of the car, except for computer powered map updates.
My Edge 1000 bike GPS however will last for 3-4 hours as it is designed to operate on my bike handlebars.
But, Tim, why does this vex you so?
What I liked, even with my II+ was how user programmable they were. Each of the display fields could be set to display what *you* wanted, rather than what they thought was appropriate.
And many of them were properly waterproof (rather than 'shower proof') and so were often used out on cycles, motorbikes and walking.
And even the early ones often had a waterproofed BNC connector allowing you to run an external aerial, handy if you wanted to use one inside a steel narrow boat or van. ;-)
I think Garmin is now offering 'consumer' grade devices to satisfy the basic TomTom / Google maps users but they are still found all over the world in all sorts of serious kit, from AA vans to Lifeboats and aircraft.
"This is your Captain speaking, according to our TomTom we should be landing in Milan by 13:50" (the sound of many Garmin owners deploying the escape chutes). ;-)
Cheers, T i m
I still have all my Garmins going back from the GPS II+. Each were such reliable assistants who took me thousands of miles on all forms of transport I couldn't bear to get rid of them! ;-(
And I don't want to have GPS and phone on the same device for all sorts of practical reasons. One being do I want a few hundred quids worth of phone out on the handlebars of my Mountain bike in the pouring rain?
Or do I want to try to use my phone based GPS with leather motorcycle gloves?
That's not saying the likes of Google Maps doesn't have a place because it does ... but it's not as my primary GPS on a car / bike trip.
We were walking round Cambridge the other day and were trying to find our way back to the Park-n-ride point. We walked back and forward trying to make use of Google maps but gave up, eventually using the FreeNav type app instead ... just at my battery was nearing being empty (meaning I wouldn't have a phone either). ;-(
Cheers, T i m
OMG!!!! That would have been catastrophic! Have you not yet realised that your reliance on all this crap has diminished your inbuilt spatial awareness system? Ah, but that probably resides in the side of your brain which you despise so much ;>
If the 'this' you are referring to is why I am frustrated by Linux, then that's twofold.
1) It could be so much better, if only all the Linux developers got together and stopped forking it a million ways. 2) Just as in the same way the fanatic Brexiteers know they are right, the Linux fanboys are convinced that a) there are many people who actually have sufficient issues with Windows or OSX to be even considering something else (even if it was free, and they aren't) and even if they were, that Linux as it is ATM is it (it isn't).The think is, I'd really like to have a free (of cost) alternative OS that runs efficiently on all my hardware *and* works with all the extra stuff, but Linux isn't it ... but potentially could be.
Part of the problem is / are the Linux fanboys themselves ... they want to keep Linux 'for them' because they have issues integrating with anyone (let alone other OS's) and so bring a bad rep to Linux.
Distros like Ubuntu / Mint have gone some way to providing an good solution OOTB but they still have the same flaws and limitations of most other distros, not enough manufacturer / developer support.
And why would you when it still has this 'geeky' image (plus the market is very small etc).
I've just booted my Linux PC and used my new Logitech wireless keyboard though my Aten 4 way KVMA switch to select it and whilst I can configure the keyboard and mouse on Windows, I can't on Linux. What if I only had Linux, what would I do?
It's the same has having *only* an electric car for most households. OK, it might cover most of the day to day needs (commuting, school run, shopping etc) but what when you need to take a trailer full of stuff down the dump or do a 500 mile round trip in an emergency?
You revert to the ICE car that *can* do everything ....
Cheers, T i m
I was in Amsterdam in 1996 and set the location of my car on the Garmin III and turned it off. After a few hours of walking around, I turned it back on and set it to return to that waypoint and went straight back to the car. My kids thought that was cool!
Since then we have driven to every country in mainland Europe except Belarus and Russia using Garmins.
My car allows 'projecting' apps from the phone onto the car's screen, so I now use Waze which has a more up to date database of speed limits, cameras, potholes and dead badgers than the car's own satnav ... the cuddly avatars of other Waze users are a bit pointless though.
That is not entirely unreasonable as this would allow enough time to set up away from the car.
Only 3-4 hours? Not a fan of long bike rides then!
No, it would have been even more inconvenient that it already was as it was raining, the Mrs was tired and we didn't want to miss the last shuttle bus back to the carpark.
I wasn't relying on anything. I was using a tool to 'help' me when my built in system didn't work as expected. I hadn't ever walked round Cambridge, we went there in the dry and in daylight, visited many shops and then were coming out in there dark and the rain. Any of my Garmins would have done exactly what I'd wanted (and had previously) and that was take us the quickest path wallking to a saved waypoint, be that the car, tent or other 'mobile' location. Google maps should have done that but the UI just didn't make sense and had us walking back and forth over the same track before using something more intuitive.
We all need (and rely on) both hemispheres of our brains to do all the things that we need to do but some who have their dominance in the left hemisphere, can reach illogical conclusions when it comes to understanding the 'bigger picture' (like you just did). ;-)
Cheers, T i m
1) plug the unifying receiver into the kvm 2) pair keyboard and mouse to receiver 3) use keyboard and mouse on any computer connected to kvm
In this house, here are devices running Windows, OSX, Linux, Android, IOS. If I need something done in a particular OS, I'll use the appropriate device. I don't get wound up by this type of thing. FWIW, my laptop, which I am writing this on and do most of my stuff runs Linux Mint. The machine is old and the battery has been removed as it won't charge. Obviously, power the lead gets pulled accidentally on the odd occasion. The machine will power up and work with no problems whatsoever (tempting fate) every time. Windows couldn't cope with that abuse (IME when I last used it in anger). Whether or not the macbook would cope I don't know as it's got a battery that works.
If you only had Linux, you probably wouldn't have bought a keyboard that Linux won't play with.
I did that a lot (mainly as a backstop as I'm generally pretty good with my spatial awareness) and I still think it's pretty neat! ;-)
We live in a road that hasn't had 'through' access (private road past us) for ever but even less since they took away the railway gates.
I am often out in all weathers helping foreign drivers turn 40' artics round because their (inevitably) TomTom SatNavs have told them to come this way (I ask because I'm interested). I've even reported on the TomTom site but they would have to update their devices for that to have any effect (and most don't know how to).
There have been other brands but I can't remember ever hearing them say Garmin. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
p.s. Even on my GPS III you could set the vehicle type to 'Lorry' and so it would adjust the speed limits accordingly and avoid low bridges and narrow roads etc.
Excuse my ignorance but does a smartphone need a phone signal to operate as a sat nav or can it communicate direct with the satellites? Many places are out of range for mobile phones.
It's *Citroen* shit. You could buy a standalone one for the amount they think you'll pay to keep it updated (only a dealer can do it, apparently).
In over 3 years of having it, I never once have managed to locate anything using it's inbuilt POI database.
You can *only* navigate by postcode. And despite going through the rigmarole of "saving" locations (when you get there) it steadfastly refuses to show you that list ever again.
As I said upthread - the HERE app for Android is almost 100% fit for purpose. My only gripes are (a) integration with other apps (but that's more because Google force the default navigation app to be Google Maps) and (b) The inability to have it load into "Driving mode" when opened - you need to press a button to start it. But apart from that it's free and has regular database updates.
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