Organic Maps, the privacy-focused, open-source alternative to Google Maps, celebrates its 4th anniversary. The project came to life during Christmas week of 202…
  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
    11·
    13 hours ago

    I am a little concerned about the apps ties to Russia. I could not find much information on Alexey Naumenko which means he could live in Russia.

    I know this is definitely geopolitical but I think keeping important projects away from Russia would be good for the time being.

    • boonhet@lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      12 hours ago

      If you look up the actual Estonian LLC (OÜ) they use, it’s owned by two guys with Russian sounding names, one living in Argentina (claims to be Byelorussian) and one living in UK (not much info on him online).

      It’s public info if you just look up the company name, so I’m not really doxing them.

      Whether or not that’s suspicious is up to you. Estonia does make it hella easy for anyone to register a company, you don’t have to be a citizen, or even a real resident, you only have to be an e-resident I believe.

  • SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    191·
    2 days ago

    I’m glad their app is getting traction. I wish all map apps that use OpenStreetMap data loaded this fast (cough cough OSMand)

    • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      2 days ago

      And I wish that they had contributed all that energy to improving Osmand (a project which AFAICT has exactly the same goals) instead of reinventing the wheel. Then we might already have one amazing app instead of one very good app (Osmand) and a mediocre one which is marginally more responsive.

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        13 hours ago

        OsmAnd isn’t exactly eager to accept community help.

        Also it isn’t being maintained by the community. It is a project done by a company.

        • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          5 hours ago

          Admittedly I had not looked into this very deeply. Seems to be an Ubuntu-type business model.

          OsmAnd isn’t exactly eager to accept community help.

          Maybe it explains this. Projects tend to be less relaxed about breaking things when they have staff to pay. But it has its advantages as well. For example I have always got replies on the OsmAnd issue tracker. Pure community projects tend to be more chaotic and disorganized.

          In any case they don’t explain their income very well, I agree that’s not a good look.

      • FlappyBubble@lemmy.mlEnglish
        20·
        2 days ago

        They are very different tools even if the underlying data is the same. Osmand is powerful and highly customisable but with a much steeper learning curve. Organic maps is easy to use with emphasis on UX/UI. I think they appeal to very different need and users.

  • SpatchyIsOnline@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    Damn, I was really looking forward to trying this out but my primary use for Google Maps is navigating public tansport (mainly finding bus and train times as well as routes for longer journies) but it says the data isn’t available in my region yet :(

    • Hanrahan@slrpnk.netEnglish
      1·
      14 hours ago

      In my area the transport aithority has a website for that, so i just use that via Firefox mobile, works fine.

      • mac@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        12 hours ago

        Wow I messed that up.

        Looks like that announcement was remedying why I uninstalled organic maps. Was at the airport and didn’t read the announcement linked.

  • thevoidzero@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    I want to use this, but does it have car integration? Since I got a car, I had to enable a lot of google services for map through Android auto.