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Re: [ gpsdrive ] Fwd: gpsdrive status and my opinion
On Wednesday 14 February 2007 21:48, kd4e wrote:
> > Joerg Ostertag (gpsdrive Munich/Germany) wrote:
> >
> > Well, lets see if it's still working.
>
> Well, it is working for you, my posts are not
> making it to the list for some reason ... sigh.
>
> Anyhow, I have joined the gpsd-users list and have
> received excellent feedback there.
>
> They see gpsdrive as somewhat unstable for mapping ...
>
> > The F/L OSS mapping niche seems very immature right now.
That's definitely true :-(
> > I've been playing with roadnav which crashes less than
> > it did before, but is very slow. Roadmap seems like it
> > has more potential (seeing as it also understands the
> > Canadian GeoBase format) but seems even less mature
> > than roadmap.
I can't tell too much about those two.
> > I've heard bad things about gpsdrive's
> > stability also.
Well, any new hint on stability problems is welcome.
> > Basically, there's a lot of work to
> > be done for navigation under non-windows.
This is definitely true. But we (Gpsdrive and OSM Team) are heavily working on
it.
> Would you say this is a fair assessment or might they
> be describing an older version of gpsdrive?
Well i would say both.
We're currently in a heavily development state. This for one thing breaks a
lot, but for another point brings a lot of new features to gpsdrive.
So I think; it is definitely worth a personal try to see if gpsdrive (or
roadnav/...) suites your needs.
What we definitely cannot provide yet is real navigation. We (GpsDrive) only
have a moving map. But we're working on getting Vectordata (from OSM) into
gpsdrive. The first Betta test where already successfull. This would (in the
long term) enable us to get Routing to your destination. But it's a hard and
long way. So if you're willing to join us on this stony and difficult path,
we'll definitely welcome you here. Because every helping hand will be
welcome. It does help if you have programming skills, but we have more than
enough things (from writing Documentation, testing, collecting new tracks,
proofreading, translating, ...) which we would be very happy if we would get
help with.
> I want to buy a Bluetooth GPS for gpsdrive but not
> if navigation is unreliable.
This heavily depends what you define as unreliable.
If you are located anywhere near Germany; I could borrow one of my GPS for
testing for some weeks to you. If not someone else in your area might give
you a helping hand in borrowing you a GPS for testing this out.
> WDYT?
I would decide by the following choices:
1) If you need real Navigation with everything you can imagine (Voice,
on-the-fly rerouting, searching in a streetname Database, ...) and you want
to use it NOW. You should definitely by one of these little Navigation
devices which can be used without extra testing and installing around. I
personally have a TomTom, Falk and Garmin and the all work well for normal
Street Navigation use. Some do a little better and others don't but
basically "you get to your destination".
2) If you're inside Europe and can use a Laptop; another possibility would be
to buy any GPS with USB or Bluetooth and use Destination(also called
Navigator) it's a commercial Linux Software which is about $90,- ... $150,-
depending on the needed features. It's not very widely sold, but I you know
the name you'll find and get it.
3) If you like to use a Laptop and you have the chance to use a Windows System
(just in case) for the next 1 or two years. You might give the oss Solutions
a chance. And just in case ... you'll have a backup solution. I can't really
tell how fast we'll be getting along, but with our limited time available we
(the gpsdrive Team with 3 core developers + 3 partial developers + many
helpers) try our best to get the next stable Version out.
And if you want to contribute to GpsDrive or our preferred upstream mapsource
OSM (www.openstreetmap.org) we would be really happy.
--
Jörg (Germany, Munich)
http://www.ostertag.name/
TeamSpeak2: ts2.ostertag.name, user: tweety, Channel: "GPS Drive"
Tel.: +49 89 420950304
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