gmt

Just joined the list. my apologies if this topic has already been covered.
A friend has a Magellan triton 1500 which has a hidden and stripped down version of WindowsCE, which can ( and has been ) be unlocked, allowing him to run OziexplorerCE, and any maps that Ozi can read.
My question. is there anything similar for Garmin 60Cx ?
Thanks
Graham

HumVee

To my knowledge, all of the Garmin GPS units use a proprietary Garmin system - no Windows CE, Linux, etc. I have never heard of a "jailbroken" or hacked Garmin running another OS. All the hits I found for Garmin running Linux or WinCE were duds (mostly how to connect & manage Garmin devices when your OS is Linux, etc.). On the other hand, if you search these forums, you'll find lots of discussions & links to free 3rd party maps and POI's for Garmin devices.

doppler

HumVee you are mostly correct. The 8XX was the only series that used Linux as a OS. I will try and find some data to back this up.

HumVee

I'm always happy to be corrected and learn something new, doppler! Thanks for the notification. Armed with that information, I did find a LinuxDevices.com article stating that Garmin 8xx and 5xxx series nuvi's run Gnome Mobile Linux: Garmin Nav devices run Gnome Linux, 07/02/2008

MTalvola

On that link, they said Garmin released the source code for their Linux based devices?!? I even clicked on a link that took me directly to Garmin's website to download the various versions. I didn't get any deeper than that, but Garmin actually making their source code available? That's weird, especially for them...

HumVee

It's a requirement of Linux's GNU Public License agreement. Anyone can use and modify the software code - but they must release the source code so that other programmers can see and utilize any advancements in the code. It's why there's so many flavors of Linux - but also its greatest strength as a free operating system.

MTalvola

From my interpretation, it was Garmin actually releasing THEIR source code, not the Linux OS source code. If that's true, that's what was so surprising. Apparently, the whole navigation engine/algorithm thing is like "black magic" or something and is, supposedly, a closely guarded secret of Garmin's. If Linux actually requires someone writing a Linux application to release/publish THEIR source code then, again, I've very surprised Garmin used Linux...

HumVee

My understanding is that Garmin is releasing their source code that they developed for those GPS units - because they were using Linux code in those devices. They have to share that source code, if they distribute any products that utilize Linux code. Just because Linux is free doesn't mean that it comes without obligations and legal requirements!

MTalvola

I understand that. That's why I'm surprised Garmin didn't continue on with whatever very closed system architecture they were using before since they are obviously very "anti jailbreak/hack" with their units. They sure don't seem the type to want their code "out there"...

HumVee

Well, considering all of the new units that have come out since then - maybe it was just an experiment, and they've decided not to continue on with it....

doppler

Thanks HumVee for the link, I was not aware the 5xxx was using this also.