The software is good, particularly with Google's maps, but I'm definitely getting a Holux M1200 for Christmas.
The built-in GPS sucks. when I'm on the streets trying to find a building, I'm not willing to wait more than 2 minutes for getting the lock.

I took my n810 out for a drive today and the GPS was working great! Nothing fancy, just using the regular maps program. I'm not sure how long it took to get a lock, but it was within five minutes I was connected to 9 satellites. I'm not sure what I did to make it run better, but it definitely seems usable now. I don't need a GPS for getting around, but it's kinda fun to see the curve coming up, just before you come up to it.

My only complaints would be that when in the map app the screen never turns off. And whenever I open the map it always seems to default to Calgary which is really annoying.

After cleaning up my N810, reflashed, updated and cloned to 2gb internal sd, Maemo Mapper can't get a gps lock anymore. I downloaded maps of my area but, that's about it. Maybe I haven't left it on enough. The last time when I was able to get a lock, I had the device on with MM running all night. Though, I am not sure if that is the reason why. I have a-gps installed and all.

Well let me tell you my story. After a while I gave up on the n810, but Im a seasons kind of guy, and I started too look again for a solution to 1) useless gps software such as Mmapper(pretty and all but doesnt help at all when your lost) or Wayfinder (wayfinder is uslees because I live in Latin america and you have to fork over money) 2) the ridiculous time it takes to lock or the little time it takes to loose signal.

Solution #1

NAVIT!!!! cool new software that reads vector maps and its FREE!!!(its still a little buggy and requires a little time to config but whats even better, IT READS GARMIN MAPS!! GAAARMIIIN!!!!

Solution #2

I downloaded the so called A-gps even though I didnt know what tha **** was for, until I read about it and how it works on the nokia site (yes nokia actually did help with the device they sold and manufactured and put in a package to let others do the fixing for them). Let me explain the steps I took to see if they work for you

1. Open A-gps settings, Click all of the options. (if you have cell phone internet I recomend something with Edge).Then used my Davinci painting precision hand, to click on the nearest i could get to my previously known coordinates EXIT
2. Shutdown the device, turned it back on
3. Go outside of my house, clear sky, open the application called Maps (It started trying to connect to my cel phone via Btooth)
4. I took the gps 30-50 seconds to get a lock on the sattelites
5. Shutdown, and restarted the device again
6. Opened Maemo Crapper. (it didnt try to conect to my cell phone) 30-50 seconds to lock AGAIN!!!!
7. Shutdown, restart the device again!again!
8. Opend Control panel, went into GPs location>location, clicked refresh. It took again 30-50s to LOCK. AGAIN after 3 cold starts.

So Im not going to say im happy, Ill say Im finally happy, and waiting to be even more when Navit gets out of alfa state

I have found that the weather matters too much.
When it is sunny, I usually get a lock in about 1 minute (from cold start), but if the weather is bad, raining or snowing, I can't get a lock, not unless I can use internet to let it download the ephemeris.
It is clear that the chipset has low sensivity.

I've played around with this a little more and if there's one thing Nokia can improve it's the time for the GPS to actually start collecting data. From the time that Mapper is started it takes 30-40 seconds for the program to actually see the GPS and collect data. I think this is the major issue with lock times is the initiation time of the GPS module. Once it sees the GPS it locks pretty quickly, 10 seconds or so. At least that's been my experience.