The best things in life really are free*

portuguese mike

Edge 705 with Topo GB map: Don't bother; i paid the extra £90 for the full Great Britain Topo DVD bundled with my 705 and quite frankly it's cack .

i have tried in vain to get the thing to work properly on minor roads but after trying everything i could think off i gave up and used BikeRouteToaster. Lo and behold it worked an absloute treat. It was completely flawless on the same route that my mapsource generated route was utterly flumoxed by and it's free.

i don't quite know how to feel right now; on the one hand i'm really chuffed that my edge really does work but on the other i feel robbed that i forked out 90 queens heads for something i could have got gratis all along :evil: (on top of which it's actually easier to use and the maps are far more legible).

*except bikes, bike kit; bike holidays............

FSR_XC

The best things in life really are free*

. . . . and for everything else, there's Ebay!

richardjallen

portuguese mike wrote:

Edge 705 with Topo GB map: Don't bother; i paid the extra £90 for the full Great Britain Topo DVD bundled with my 705 and quite frankly it's cack .

i have tried in vain to get the thing to work properly on minor roads but after trying everything i could think off i gave up and used BikeRouteToaster. Lo and behold it worked an absloute treat. It was completely flawless on the same route that my mapsource generated route was utterly flumoxed by and it's free.

i don't quite know how to feel right now; on the one hand i'm really chuffed that my edge really does work but on the other i feel robbed that i forked out 90 queens heads for something i could have got gratis all along :evil: (on top of which it's actually easier to use and the maps are far more legible).

*except bikes, bike kit; bike holidays............

Software written for free tends to be written for the love of doing things right. Software written as a commercial enterprise is written for the love of money.

Getting things right and getting things done on time tend to conflict and mostly the 'get something done by the deadline so we can pay the shareholders for you hard labour' wins.

portuguese mike

Software written for free tends to be written for the love of doing things right. Software written as a commercial enterprise is written for the love of money.

Getting things right and getting things done on time tend to conflict and mostly the 'get something done by the deadline so we can pay the shareholders for you hard labour' wins.[/quote]

The cynic in me thinks you may well have a point there. And of course if its perfect first time out then they can't bring out an 'improved' version later on - for a modest fee of course.

richardjallen

I think the some companies, the blue chips for instance, have their heads screwed on correctly and try to do it right. For instance I think Apple try but have had their failings. But if people only knew about the small companies in niche markets, that make up the majority of software companies, then its a different story. Actually to be less cynical I think its the pressure of writing software commercially and having to pay salaries etc.

EDIT - Although I can only speak for those companies in the UK but I doubt its very different anywhere else. All under the same pressure.

graham_g

The bike toaster people do accept donations from people who are very happy with their work

piedwagtail91

I've just tried it out using a route i have saved on my tracklogs mapping. it's our clubs 100 course and it seems to have made a pretty accurate course from it.
looks to be a very good piece of software