u/midnightseanavy — reddlx

Unpopular opinion: I had mostly Makita and a couple DeWalt tools and when I needed a bunch of new batteries I figured it was a good time to switch to Milwaukee. Sold everything and made the jump. I have to say I am not impressed at all. A couple of them are equal but most are inferior, and the Makita was definitely superior. The longer I own them the more I dislike them.

I honestly think Milwaukee’s popularity is largely internet culture, monkey see monkey do. Out of maybe 11 tools I have bought, the only one I can say is actually better is the reciprocating saw.
I don’t have the time or money to do a big swap all at once so it’s going to be a slow transition, but I’m going back to Makita. Very disappointed.

*All the stuff I got was M18 Fuel.

I prefer Garmin hardware and specifically their support, but that is where my positive feelings about this company end.

I’ve used Navionics for years on my phone and end up having to purchase that plus the chart subscription every year, which runs $100 to $150.

I probably wouldn’t complain so much if they hadn’t started taking away features. There is no way to do any sort of route planning on a laptop or desktop anymore with Navionics or ActiveCaptain. ActiveCaptain is a garbage application. It’s impossible to plan routes on, it’s clunky, and it doesn’t work right. Navionics isn’t much better but at least it’s possible to plan a trip on it. But I really still like using my laptop.

What really irritates me is that apps like Aquamaps let you run the iPad app on a Mac desktop or laptop. Garmin has specifically blocked this. There is no technological reason for it. They just want you to suffer through their ecosystem I guess.

I recently switched to Aquamaps for route planning. I plan the route, email it to myself, open it in ActiveCaptain, and import it into the Garmin. It’s a ridiculous workflow but it’s what I’m stuck with.

Does anyone have a better solution? I’m just so frustrated with this company. They don’t seem to update anything, they keep raising prices, and the software keeps getting worse.

I really like the idea of Argo but I like using Aquamaps more; Garmin software blows.