Fast Running Blog

General Category => Product Reviews => Topic started by: Joe Furse on January 06, 2011, 12:04:50 am



Title: Garmin and Linux (Ubuntu)
Post by: Joe Furse on January 06, 2011, 12:04:50 am
I know there might be a couple of us out there that use Linux based operating systems, so I thought I'd throw this out there for anyone who might need it.  I got a new Garmin 205 for Christmas, and as a Linux user (Ubuntu) I naturally was unable to connect my Garmin to my computer.  Never fear, however.  After a couple of hours of head scratching and researching and trying different things (stuff that REAL computer geeks like Sasha or Paul could do in their head in 10 seconds) I found a solution.  It's a program called Turtle Sport, and although I haven't yet used it a whole lot I was able to get my Garmin to integrate very well using it.  I still have a couple of cosmetic things to finish figuring out (like putting a launcher in my dock and stuff like that), but the program works well.  It will project your runs (it calls them Races--English obviously wasn't the native tongue of the developer) onto Google Earth or Google Maps and the whole nine yards.  So far it looks pretty impressive.  The website is:  http://turtlesport.sourceforge.net/EN/home.html.  It is, of course, free.  This forum thread will also be useful:  http://www.copperfish.net/wordpress/2009/05/garmin-forerunner-205-in-ubuntu-jaunty/  You can also see my very n00b comments there and laugh at me.  Turns out all I had to do was restart and try it again.

Anyway, just thought I'd post that for the 1% of us on the blog who might be Linux users.  Enjoy.