Several years ago I bought the second worst piece of hardware ever: a GPS from a company called Garmin. The only thing I ever bought that was WORSE was a Macintosh Performa 5300.

I could go a lengthy rant on why this is a piece of crap, but I won't. Instead, just to save yourselves a lot of pain and misery, heed my words; do NOT EVER buy a GPS from Garmin.

But, here's the thing, I need a GPS, so now I wonder if any of you have any recommendations? I have zero knowledge about these gadgets, except for the fact that Garmin must be the worst.

Best regards,
HMW

I have a Newton that sits in my office to remind me never to be conned by Apple again. It has succeeded so far.

FWIW I also have a garmin that works just fine for me, so I guess you can ignore that as a recommendation ...

:-). Been there, know the feeling, but I actually won out.

In towns, you need to navigate via 'shortest route,' and outside of them 'fastest route.' Garmin drive the maps, and you need a 'lifetime update' but then they work to a slightly higher quality than competition, imho. My Garmin was cheap crap and I won't go so cheap next time. But I'm not buying now.

Why not use a smartphone and google navigation? All you need then is a dashboard phone holder

Thanks for the suggestion, but I would rather have a separate GPS that is _good_ and works only as a GPS.

Best,
HMW

Your choices are basically Garmin, Magellan, TomTom, Mio and Lowrance. I would look at either TomTom or Magellan. I can not recommend a particular model but go read the reviews and see which one you like...

Thank you for these suggestions. I will check out TomTom and Magellan to start with.

Best regards,
HMW

I agree with the OP - the last company in the world I want tracking my every move is Google. They know too much as it is even when you resist as much as possible.

I want a stand-alone GPS unit. I don't need it to "suggest" I go to the nearest donut house since I'm close.

^Yes. I try to keep my usage of Google's services to a bare minimum.

I've used a lot of Garmin units over the years, both handheld and installed in aircraft, and IMO they're the best I've used. I've also used Magellan and several other brands, and they all suck compared to Garmin. Garmin does have its weaknesses, but overall it's the best you'll find. But other brands are available, and it's your money.

There are bluetooth GPS units available, that can be used with a smartphone or something like the defunct Palm devices. You don't have to use Google Maps with a smartphone, nor the internal GPS.

Can TomTom be updated from Linux?

I don't know. I've never used TomTom, it's always been too expensive for me to consider. Updating maps from commercial services is always expensive. There are open-source freeware options like OpenStreetMaps, though. GPSBabel will transfer maps to and from almost any device, as long as you have the maps, and can convert between many map file formats.

Just recently researched before buying - couldn't find a single one locally (including Tom Tom) that could be set up or maintained from Linux. And I think most (if not all) run an embedded Linux.

I didn't like my cheap sucky Garmin unit, but with the 'lifetime update' you get fresh maps as they are made. They drive the maps and mistakes are few. My son took Tom Tom on his iPhone abroad and came unstuck because he wanted to get somewhere one day but the road was blocked. He had to detour, but it couldn't locate either him or the little village he was headed for by any other route and he spent half ah hour charging in circles before giving up.
The Garmin also retained a signal under hostile circumstances and thick cloud when all phones, & tablets etc lost theirs. In Ireland we get plenty of that weather here and still have areas with very poor mobile reception.

We expect a lot from a GPS, and are likely to get a 'love-hate' experience. I will pay fairly well for my next one.

If you want to go the smartphone route but avoid Google maps, check out Svgic GPS & navigation. That uses Tom Tom maps and phone GPS navigation. I'm sure you have to pay somewhere along the line, but it would be cheaprr than forking for a purpose built GPS.

There is also OSM for android.
I have a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx thats been my non-phone GPS for a decade.