[HN Gopher] MapLibre GL is a free and open-source fork of mapbox...
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       MapLibre GL is a free and open-source fork of mapbox-gl-JS
        
       Author : atriix
       Score  : 209 points
       Date   : 2021-04-02 11:10 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | slibhb wrote:
       | From https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-gl-js
       | 
       | > Mapbox gl-js version 2.0 or higher ("Mapbox Web SDK") must be
       | used according to the Mapbox Terms of Service. This license
       | allows developers with a current active Mapbox account to use and
       | modify the Mapbox Web SDK. Developers may modify the Mapbox Web
       | SDK code so long as the modifications do not change or interfere
       | with marked portions of the code related to billing, accounting,
       | and anonymized data collection. The Mapbox Web SDK only sends
       | anonymized usage data, which Mapbox uses for fixing bugs and
       | errors, accounting, and generating aggregated anonymized
       | statistics. This license terminates automatically if a user no
       | longer has an active Mapbox account.
       | 
       | Seems their client code does some things related to "billing,
       | accounting, and anonymized data collection" and they don't want
       | programmers to disable or modify that code.
       | 
       | Is that right? Anyone who has followed this have more
       | information? I haven't used mapbox in a few years but I think
       | it's great technology.
        
         | Freak_NL wrote:
         | The software stopped being open source from v2 onwards. The new
         | licence makes it merely shared source.
         | 
         | This GitHub issue where this change is announced provides a
         | number of more in-depth explanations why this is a bad thing
         | for most users of the software:
         | https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-gl-js/issues/10162
        
         | blendergeek wrote:
         | The billing is pretty important.
         | 
         | Using Mapbox GL JS 2.0 offline using a local tile server still
         | requires an account and a per tile fee.
        
         | mourner wrote:
         | There was a big HN discussion about it a few months back
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25347310
        
       | icholy wrote:
       | How does this compare with openlayers?
        
         | Doctor_Fegg wrote:
         | Mapbox GL/MapLibre GL does one thing and does it incredibly
         | well: vector map rendering from tiled data (MVT format) in the
         | common Web Mercator projection.
         | 
         | OpenLayers is a bit more of a Swiss Army knife. It's a valuable
         | part of many web GIS workflows, but its vector tile rendering
         | is a long way behind MBGL's.
        
         | Waterluvian wrote:
         | Last time I tried, Mapbox is very primitive as a GIS front end
         | but fine as a basic Web mapping UI.
         | 
         | I find that Openlayers has more of the capabilities I need when
         | building complex mapping UIs.
        
           | executive wrote:
           | Exactly the opposite experience.
           | 
           | Openlayers Web GL suppot is rudimentary.
        
             | karussell wrote:
             | Maplibre is certainly weak in the "GIS front" like
             | coordinate transformation or WMS stuff etc.
             | 
             | But yes, the one big feature missing in openlayers is Web
             | GL support for vector tiles. There was some support for
             | this but due to bugs (or something else?) they removed it
             | in the latest version. Note that openlayers has Web GL
             | support for e.g. point cloud.
        
             | Waterluvian wrote:
             | I do wish Openlayers did WebGL better but I found Mapbox to
             | be far too primitive to do anything beyond your basic map
             | views and interactions.
             | 
             | Once I got to "user has to author their own city data on a
             | dozen layers" it was missing a lot of authoring features
             | required.
        
       | cejana wrote:
       | Besides the JS version, the Maplibre project also maintains a
       | FOSS fork of the matching mobile libraries at
       | https://github.com/maplibre/maplibre-gl-native
        
       | rijoja wrote:
       | Cool does anyone have experience of using this?
        
         | genericguy wrote:
         | We are using it at couchers.org. It's a drop-in replacement to
         | the 1.x versions which were properly open source.
        
           | rijoja wrote:
           | Wow that is cool, good to see a couch surfing alternative.
           | Have you gotten a decent amount of users?
        
             | Mediterraneo10 wrote:
             | There have been Couchsurfing alternatives for years and
             | years. BeWelcome is a registered non-profit in France that
             | has been around since ~2008, while Trustroots (also a
             | registered non-profit) was founded in 2014 to provide a
             | site whose web infrastructure could develop more quickly
             | through hackathons, and would be more friendly to
             | alternative travelers like hitchhikers.
             | 
             | The only reason some people saw a need for Couchers is
             | because they wanted a site that was a more faithful clone
             | of Couchsurfing, except without Couchsurfing's recent turn
             | towards paywalls. However, people who have been involved in
             | internet hospitality exchange for many years are concerned
             | about this kind of duplication of effort. There were also
             | concerns about Couchers' non-profit status in the
             | beginning, but one does have to give them credit for
             | swiftly resolving that.
        
       | vami wrote:
       | The story behind Mapbox GL:
       | https://www.maptiler.com/news/2021/01/mapbox-gl-open-source-...
        
       | nxpnsv wrote:
       | I wanted to try this, it so I opened the demo
       | https://codepen.io/klokan/pen/WNoZRyx and 30 mins later I am lost
       | looking at Hungarian villages for some reason...
        
         | eCa wrote:
         | Have you tried Geoguessr[1]?
         | 
         | [1] https://www.geoguessr.com/ (no affiliation)
        
         | fit2rule wrote:
         | Hungarian villages are fascinating. Are you tuning into
         | something, in particular, about them? (For me, its the village
         | sun alignments/road-parallelism that fascinates..)
        
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       (page generated 2021-04-03 23:00 UTC)