Peter Dobratz <pe...@dobratz.us> writes:
>
> We were contemplating GPS units last year, but we never completed the
> research and didn't make a purchase. That being said, it looks like
> the major players are Garmin and TomTom.
>
> Some TomTom units run Linux, see: http://opentom.org/
And Debian, apparently: when my wife bought a TomTom unit, last year,
I went googling to try to figure out how update the maps using a
GNU/Linux system. Searching for things like "+TomTom +Linux", of
course, just found me articles about how the on-unit TomTom OS was
Linux-based...; so I tried over-specified searches like "+TomTom +Debian"
(we're a Debian household), and all *that* got me was pages about
how to install Debian *on the TomTom*.
At the time, my initial response to that latter set of results was
something like, `Wow..., what is wrong with these people?' :)
Then I thought about it and it occured to me that the TomTom units
might actually make reasonably nice little `palmtop' touchscreen
computers (that just happened to include GPS as peripheral functionality).
And *then* we discovered just how much better the OSM maps can be than
the proprietary ones[0] (and that it costs a zillion dollars to get
the proprietary maps from TomTom :)). And then my wife asked, "Can you
install Debian on *my* TomTom so *I* can just use OpenStreetMap?"
Of course, then we decided shortly thereafter that the whole `GPS thing'
seemed mostly stupid as far as we were concerned anyway[1],
and gave the TomTom away to someone else :)
Footnotes:
[0] ... which makes perfect sense to me, since there's actually a
way for bugs to be reported and fixed in OSM....
[1] "mostly". I have since grown to like some of the FOSS GPS
offerings, but for reasons other than the ones for which
people usually seem to like things like the TomTom.
--
"Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr))))."
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