At the end of October Magellan is coming out with some really great looking units. I don't mean they're pretty, they look like they have a lot of great features (better compasses, better battery life.)
After my extremely negative Garmin experience I have an Anything But Garmin policy.
I wanted to buy a Delorme but they don't interface with Apple computers. They're very energy efficient. So if you aren't a Macintosh user, these should be good too.

Garmin does have free gps software, but to find it I had to e-mail their support. That was about a year ago.
(My Delorme and Magellan recommendations are based on Amazon reviews and my own shopping to replace the horribly designed Garmin Colorado)

I agree there are too many choices, information is scattered, too poorly organized. I wound up making no decision, then stumbled onto the announcement of the new Magellans.

Will

: What brand of GPS do you have?
: Do you know anything about how it stores the data internally, or
: what it outputs when you do a download?
: I've had a couple Magellan GPS units which worked with a separate
: map program. My output was pretty much as you describe, but no
: ugly 'popcorn' dots--just smooth lines. I could point to
: anywhere on the track and it would give me (in a chart form) the
: speed, time I was there, and coordinates for that point. I paid
: about $40 for the first CD with the sioftware and a map
: database. Got a second version, updated maps, but essentially
: the same, in the bundle of goodies that came with the second
: GPS. Not sure how to figure the cost on that one.

: It seems to me that if the output from your unit is compatible
: with, or convertible to, something for another GPS then you
: could use software from another company. It might not be free,
: but inexpensive. Might even be able to find used software on
: e-bay or at a used software store. Problem is knowing what to
: get.

: Just a thought

: PGJ