Don't

[gpsperson]

I must strongly suggest that people do not buy the TomTom devices. We have had a lot of trouble keeping our unit up-to-date over the years, and there has been little anyone could do to solve the problem.

The first thing we had to do was to obtain a used Windows computer just to do the updates. Imagine how bizarre that is to a person who uses Linux on their everyday computer. Doubly so when TomTom is based on Linux. Even our smartphones are all built on it.

There is also a serious lack of concern for the consumers when a device is designed so that it cannot hold all the information necessary to work as maps get more detailed. I have a little Raspberry Pi computer that runs off of one little flash card that is tiny in size but over one hundred gigabytes in capacity. Obviously, there should be a way to increase the onboard storage capacity of even a much older unit. Planned obsolescence is totally unacceptable, and I refuse to do business with such a company.

And you should too.

Just my two cents.

 

[dhn]

Most Tomtom devices--certainly all in the past five years--have the functionality to add a sd card up to 32 gb to handle map expansion and additional maps.

 

[gpsperson]

Two bad some others do not have that capability. To rub salt in the wound, TomTom wants me to upgrade for more than I paid for the device in the first place. Talk about mercenary.

 

[Arno]

The first thing we had to do was to obtain a used Windows computer just to do the updates.

Since you failed to state your TomTom device model it is difficult to compare.

I had absolutely no problem with Windows 10 to install the Week Number Rollover update on my 11 year old GO 930 with HOME after I got an eMail about its availability.
Love that machine but cannot update maps any longer with 4GB internal and 4GB SDHC (NOT micro) memory.

 

[canderson]

I'm surprised that after all this time, the OP is still surprised that MyDrive never been rewritten for Linux. At a little over 2% of the market (and that's all 'desktop' systems, not just average consumers, where Linux represents an even smaller number), it can be a hard sell to the bean counters to invest the additional engineering resource.

For the stuff for which there's no alternative (one of my favorites is a tool called GSAK), for better or worse, Wine is the only viable solution.

 

[gpsperson]

First of all, I didn't fail to state my model number; I did that purposefully. This is about the poor company performance in their shortsightedness regarding the needs of the customer.

Second, I don't know about MyDrive, but I do know about Home. Please allow me to give you some education about software. It is not any more expensive or time-consuming to create software that is platform agnostic than it is to target just one OS. Money has nothing to do with it.

Further, the market share has nothing whatsoever to do with it. It was an unfair market that caused the initial problem, support by millions of ignorant people.

Also, when a company programs their device with Linux and then changes their programming for the download into it, there is a serious problem. It probably is simply ignorance, but who wants to buy from ignorant companies? The consumer has been ripped off for years, and this is just another example.

 

[canderson]

Ah, your mention of Home does give us some idea as to the nature of your problem, in spite of a model number. The last of the Nav2 devices as we call them were released 8 or 9 years ago. So the complaint, as I understand it, is that the evolution of map data and the addition of a ton of added geometry has left your device short of memory. The current generation ALL include uSD slots to accommodate what could indeed be very large additions to the size of map sets, and in fact, 4GB units are already pretty well passe without a card installed.

An education? I'm tempted to send you a pointer to my LinkedIn account. Then you'd know why I do run Linux here as well, and why the only people I KNOW that run a Linux desktop as a 'primary' device are engineers.

A basic user interface can be 'agnostic', though it's tough to deal with the hooks even for that, but the underlying driver software to support the device+app is a whole 'nuther story. When you have worked your way through the mysteries and minefields of WHQL just one time, get back to me about 'agnostic' software. It's hard enough working through a Windows + Mac solution most of the time.

Sorry that perceived ignorance has created a problem for the market for X-based systems, but that's how it has always been. Blaming the ignorant for not getting solidly behind X as a desktop platform seems like a pointless exercise at this juncture. Those of us who use these boxes a lot know that our Red Hat machine simply isn't going to run a lot of software that's out there without an emulator, and due to driver issues, may not work even then. Sometimes we can get by with something else that can read and write in the required file format, and we work around that way. But most of us have just 'gotten over it', and many of us run more than one OS, network them for file and data sharing, and deal with it. It's been that way for decades, and will likely continue to be that way. Sour grapes isn't going to change that.

Your comment about 'a company programs their device with Linux' is an interesting and apt one. Linux has found a solid niche as an embedded system OS (where a chip specific RTOS isn't critical), in no small part due to the fact that it's readily scalable for a small footprint and low cost, both especially important in low margin consumer goods. In that realm, it has a distinct advantage. But I don't see why the embedded system would dictate the OS for the user interface on the PC side.

Anyway, good luck getting any of Garmin's software to operate on a Linux platform any more than TomTom's. The old MapSource, the newer BaseCamp, Garmin Express and the rest of their stable of apps won't do you any good, either. You'll be looking at Wine or for simple data transfer, 3rd party GNU alternatives such as QLandkarte GT and the like. It's not just TomTom that's going to cause you heartburn.

 

[gpsperson]

Thanks for supporting my premise.

As to working on other platforms, one could have used Java, as just one example.

I might add that the unfair advantage created to make so many ignorant people use Windows does not in any way detract from the fact that our smartphones and the WWW would not exist without Linux. Let's all keep that in mind. The whole world's economy works on it in one way or another. Counting desktops alone is meaningless since many are just used for fun and games.

Still none of all that gets to the point. We need to all stop buying from companies that don't care for us. Hence my post. Just don't.

 

[canderson]

I think you mean without UNIX (Linux was a later offshoot). Remember what powered all of those old Sun servers that got us started.

Java might have given you a basic user interface, but not all of the underlying hooks/drivers, none of which are common to any of the 'standard' platforms. As I say, until you've tried getting a hardware/driver combination certified through WHQL, we shouldn't be talking about anything very 'agnostic'. Each platform provides its own unique challenges, though even your preferred platform was a lot more work back in the early X-11 days (he said, flashing on an old project).

Anyway, you won't be buying any purpose built GPS if you won't budge. None of the manufacturers supports them with Linux desktop apps. So it's phones or whatever you find in-dash these days.

You DID know about this years back when you purchased your TomTom, didn't you??? There was never any claim to Linux support being made then or now.

 

[gpsperson]

I GoFundMe or similar place is a good investment instead of the status quo. There are people making custom GPS units, and I believe they only need a little motivation. That's where I'm going to invest me interest.

"If we keep doing what we always did, we'll keep getting what we always got".