Garmin Mac Software

[Emmbeedee]

Originally Posted by PRW

Sun Microsystems' VirtualBox is an awesome, open source and FREE alternative to Parallels and Fusion... Runs like a champ on Macs.

Now I find out... I'd heard there were alternatives but nobody mentioned any while I was looking.

Oh well, such is life.

[PRW]

Originally Posted by Emmbeedee

Now I find out... I'd heard there were alternatives but nobody mentioned any while I was looking.

Oh well, such is life.

Sorry brother - only recently discovered it myself. I was using Parallels 3.0 before and didn't want to pay for upgrade to 4.0. Tried Fusion for a while - not bad, but then gave VirtualBox a shot, based on strong recommendations from some well respected IT techies that I work with. Turned out that VirtualBox was better than all of them.

Sun Microsystems (soon to be merged with Oracle) knows what the hell they're doing when it comes to virtualization, particularly with UNIX-based OSs.

[Lobby]

Originally Posted by Emmbeedee

I bought a new iMac a couple of weeks back - always used a PC previously and still use a PC for work, but I just can't get used to the Mac versions of Garmin software.

I had BaseCamp, RoadTrip, Map Installer etc, pretty much everything I needed but tonight I caved and bought Parallels, and installed Win 7 on a virtual machine because I think the Garmin Mac software sucks, compared to the PC versions.

YMMV.

Roadtrip has a much different feel than Mapsource does. At first, I didn't like it much.

But now I prefer it. The interface is more intuitive. And running it on a Mac instead of a Windows machine makes computer life much simpler.

I suggest it's you, not the software. Respectfully, of course.

[Emmbeedee]

Originally Posted by Lobby

I suggest it's you, not the software. Respectfully, of course.

You're probably right - I might install the Mac applications again sometime but right now I'm a little tired of all this change.

Tired of connecting my digital camera and having the photos upload to iPhoto, then needing "permission" to do anything with them.

I loaded Google Picasa to deal with the images in a way I was familiar with and Picasa tells me that "iPhoto owns the images". Yeah right - when did I relinquish that?

And after going to Snow Leopard, I can't even use iMovie anymore because anytime I try to load a new movie (which iPhoto owns, presumably) it stops responding entirely.

Now an upgrade to Snow Leopard which I downloaded and installed last night might have fixed the iMovie problem, so I'm typing this with my fingers crossed on a PC at work.

[PRW]

Originally Posted by Lobby

Roadtrip has a much different feel than Mapsource does. At first, I didn't like it much.

But now I prefer it. The interface is more intuitive. And running it on a Mac instead of a Windows machine makes computer life much simpler.

I suggest it's you, not the software. Respectfully, of course.

Sure - I like the "feel" better too. And yes, I'd love to not have any Windows installed on any computer I use, much less to run only one stupid app.

What I don't like is having to go get a coffee every time I drag the map since it's so freaking slow. Nor do I like how often it hangs up the system and/or crashes.

And before you pontificate your same suggestion to me as Emm above: No - it's not me - it is the software.

[AugustFalcon]

[quote=PRW]...What I don't like is having to go get a coffee every time I drag the map since it's so freaking slow.../quote]

Dr Rock suggested keeping the "My Collection" folder database as small as possible. That seems to aid in making the program more responsive. Also keeping the detail slider in the middle helps, too. Doing the foregoing reduces the delay to mildly irritating on my really old PowerBook 12" (867 MHz PowerPC G4, 640 MB, running 10.4.11, with 6 programs running including FireFox with 2 tabs open and 988 MB left on the disk.)

That said my PC hardware isn't much better but MapSource does seem pretty responsive.

[Cloudgazer]

Originally Posted by PRW

Sure - I like the "feel" better too. And yes, I'd love to not have any Windows installed on any computer I use, much less to run only one stupid app.

What I don't like is having to go get a coffee every time I drag the map since it's so freaking slow. Nor do I like how often it hangs up the system and/or crashes.

And before you pontificate your same suggestion to me as Emm above: No - it's not me - it is the software.

Basecamp is much smoother and faster than Roadtrip (even thought it used Digital Elevation Maps).

It's a much better app than Roadtrip (but you need the right maps for it)

[PRW]

Originally Posted by Cloudgazer

Basecamp is much smoother and faster than Roadtrip (even thought it used Digital Elevation Maps).

It's a much better app than Roadtrip (but you need the right maps for it)

Maybe true, but the maps included with my GPSMAP 478 won't run on Basecamp.

[Emmbeedee]

Originally Posted by PRW

Sorry brother - only recently discovered it myself. I was using Parallels 3.0 before and didn't want to pay for upgrade to 4.0. Tried Fusion for a while - not bad, but then gave VirtualBox a shot, based on strong recommendations from some well respected IT techies that I work with. Turned out that VirtualBox was better than all of them.

Sun Microsystems (soon to be merged with Oracle) knows what the hell they're doing when it comes to virtualization, particularly with UNIX-based OSs.

We showed Parrallels 5 to an IT teacher here who's got experience with the other Mac VM alternatives and he said none of the free solutions come anywhere near P5's sophistication, so I'm glad I coughed up the coin and went that way.

I've had to become a PC geek in the past out of necessity - and I hoped that going to a Mac wouldn't require that level of commitment/obsession, but obviously not.

I didn't even need to RTFM before installing Parallels 5 - it just installed itself, then Win 7 and worked within about an hour of downloading it.

Oh, and the fix to Snow Leopard the other day did fix iMovie, fortunately.

[PRW]

Originally Posted by Emmbeedee

We showed Parrallels 5 to an IT teacher here who's got experience with the other Mac VM alternatives and he said none of the free solutions come anywhere near P5's sophistication, so I'm glad I coughed up the coin and went that way.

I've had to become a PC geek in the past out of necessity - and I hoped that going to a Mac wouldn't require that level of commitment/obsession, but obviously not.

I didn't even need to RTFM before installing Parallels 5 - it just installed itself, then Win 7 and worked within about an hour of downloading it.

Oh, and the fix to Snow Leopard the other day did fix iMovie, fortunately.

Glad P5 worked for you. As I noted, I had no problem with P3 - I just didn't want to cough up $$$ for the upgrade, when there were other well respected open source alternatives available. Sun VirtualBox installed unbelievably quickly as well, as did Windows within it. Apparently, I don't need the level of sophistication you're looking for - after all, I only need Windows to run MapSource.

[marchyman]

Originally Posted by Emmbeedee

We showed Parrallels 5 to an IT teacher here who's got experience with the other Mac VM alternatives and he said none of the free solutions come anywhere near P5's sophistication, so I'm glad I coughed up the coin and went that way.

Sophistication?

Its a tool. The tool either meets your needs or it doesn't. Sophistication usually translates to more bells and whistles that you don't need now and will most likely never need in the future. They are added to the product so the manufacturer can put more checkmarks on the box, thus coming out ahead when compared to the competition by reviewers who sometimes think more features equates to a better product.

If the simpler, less sophisticated version of a software tool will work for you, use it. It is likely to have less problems.

[/soapbox]

Can you tell I used to write software for a living?

[Cloudgazer]

Originally Posted by Cloudgazer

Basecamp is much smoother and faster than Roadtrip (even thought it used Digital Elevation Maps).

It's a much better app than Roadtrip (but you need the right maps for it)

I retract my earlier statement.
Basecamp is nicer to use - but it's route plotting leaves a lot to be desired.

I plotted the exact same route in both apps - and in Basecamp for some reason, parts of the route went off the road in a straight line for no reason whatsoever.

if you can't trust your GPS software - it's useless.

[Emmbeedee]

Originally Posted by marchyman

If the simpler, less sophisticated version of a software tool will work for you, use it. It is likely to have less problems.

[/soapbox]

You'd have us all riding Jawa, with that mentality.