Garmin Express - Linux support please

Funny thing is -- The Connect app from Garmin runs on Android which is just a Linux variant. How many Android flavors are there? So does Garmin Fit.

So tell us, how many Linux users use a Garmin GPS?

Could be a Garmin job to enquire on this. As an end user, I cannot do this: I have no access to Garmin databases of registered devices...

And while you're at it, break it down into which distro they're using. After all, Garmin isn't going to open the source of Express (otherwise we wouldn't be having this discussion), so you'll have to let them know where they should concentrate their efforts.

1- The distro is not a problem, there are tools to convert rpm to deb and so on...
2- A simple command line program should be enough getting people rid of these heavy graphical applications which seem to be difficult to develop: I just bought a garmin GPS 10 days ago and it is the third windows version of GarminExpress that I could see (which all kill windows run on a virtual machine!) :cool:

Let us know when you're finished writing it.

Let us know when you're finished writing it.

Why are you so contemptuous?

I can read "master" under your name: are from the Garmin staff? If so you are paid because I, and other people, buy Garmin product. Why some of your customers are despised? Why they have no right to get what they have paid for: "lifetime update of maps"?

"Master" is just a term that the forum uses for people who have posted a lot. You go through the ranks, "junior member", "member", "senior member", "master". No, I don't work for Garmin, and am often plenty mad at Garmin. I don't think the words "software" and "Garmin" should go in the same sentence without a negative expletive, for example. Garmin should simply Open Source Express (and VIRB Edit), and then very quickly you'd have Express for whatever Linux distro you use, as well as any other OS that comes along (or still exists, like maybe VMS or Solaris or BeOS?). But they won't.

For the most part, with very few exceptions, Garmin employees don't read these forums, so complaining here doesn't do any good, anyway.

I wrote that to try to goad someone into actually writing the script. If you think it's just a matter of a script (and I actually think that's right for the upload part at least), surely the pool of Garmin users that run desktop Linux should have someone who can write it.

Look, when you make the choice to run desktop Linux, you have to realize that for the most part you're foregoing commercial software. If you're an acolyte of Richard Stallman (and OMG if you don't know who he is), then you're going to restrict yourself even more. I've run desktop Linux, on a Mac, until OS X came along with the BSD part that I use constantly. I use Linux every day, although none of the machines I use would be appropriate for running Garmin Express. I was even allowed to partake in a very minor way in the VA Linux IPO (ancient history now, although it heralded the impending takeover of the desktop by Linux back then, which has been impending for the last 25 years now), because of my small contributions to Perl. I don't see a lot of people begging Apple for iTunes for Linux, but there are solutions for that (and the way Apple is taking iTunes, it won't be long before the solutions that have been developed for Linux get back ported to OS X). People wanted Office for Linux, and they wrote it rather than begging Microsoft to port it. This is no different.

If Garmin is taking steps to prevent you from doing it, by all means let us know. But from what I see, Garmin is actually a pretty good way to go if you run Linux (with the unfortunate exception of the ANT+ syncing devices). You can upload activities in standard formats that the devices use from any browser on the planet. They haven't taken any steps to shut down the perry site, where you can get current updates. (And the little secret is that the Windows .exe update files are simply self extracting archives, so you can always just get them from Garmin itself. unzip the Windows installer and you get the update file.) The devices update themselves after the update files are placed on the device, which is easy to do because they mount as a disk which can be accessed by the usual methods. There is no requirement that you use Garmin Connect for anything, and lots of other web sites that do more or less the same thing as Garmin Connect have manual uploads. Maps are a problem, especially if you've bought a device with Lifetime Maps, and they should definitely provide a solution (could be as simple as a web site with the right downloads available). And ConnectIQ apps/etc. might be a problem. But my impression is that they're a whole lot better than Suunto or Polar for Linux users. Certainly it's not as easy as it is for Windows and OS X users, but it's not impossible.

Just noticed this thread.

There is a CLI utility out there already written in Python using libusb that - for me at least - works very nicely indeed - one command syncs data off my Garmin Swim and uploads straight to Connect.

The links I found useful were posted here:
https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?92121-Will-Garmin-Connect-Express-support-linux&p=318495#post318495

(note that at the moment, uploading has been broken by Garmin changing the website, although it looks like it's ready being investigated: https://sourceforge.net/p/gcpuploader/discussion/general/thread/f90914d0/ )

As has been mentioned in this thread, it doesn't need Garmin to do anything except commit to a stable, defined API that anyone can code against, without having to reverse engineer anything.

JAVAWA is correct. When it comes to making GarminExress available for different platforms, what matters it the platforms those who would use GarminExpress want to use. Garmin's decision to support Linux or not isn't dependent on what platforms are used to deliver the product. We do agree that the "real statistic" should be "how many Linux users use a Garmin gps". I would word it differently, as "How many Garmin GPS users use Linux", but, either way, we are asking "how many elements in the intersection of two sets."

In general, I would guess that the portion of Garmin GPS users who use Linux is higher than the general population, but not by much. And, it's only a guess.

Why did Garmin write the software to be dependent on which O/S the client uses at all? Why didn't/don't they use platform-independent code? That is, they release one version, which is interpreted and executed by the client environment.

Years ago, they could used Java. With desktop editions of Java becoming less common, that doesn't seem to be an option anymore. What about something like HTML5 with JavaScript?

There really isn't such a thing as "platform-independent" code; maybe a web site comes closest. What they should do is to open source any code that doesn't contain what they consider their "crown jewels". I don't see what, for example, could be worth keeping secret about WebUpdater or even Express. Then they could be ported swiftly to whatever platform someone wants to port to. They do a decent job of allowing manual uploads to Garmin Connect (not for ANT+ syncing devices, though), and you can do manual software updates on a lot of the devices. But how, for example, would you do a map update from Linux (or Android or iOS, for that matter)? They should really find ways to make such things possible if not easy in a platform independent way, or maybe as more Garmin devices come with WiFi allow them to be completely independent of any other device.

What about something like HTML5 with JavaScript?

How ironic... Actually they had a solution with HTML and JavaScript combined with the Garmin Communicator Plugin (necessary for the communication with a range of devices; not possible with javascript alone). Because web browsers were going to drop support for plugins (Chrome and FireFox already did) Garmin had to come up with another solution: Express...