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Mapbox-gl-js is no longer under the 3-Clause BSD license

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Re: Mapbox-gl-js is no longer under the 3-Clause BSD license

#61
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Founder, Stadia Maps here. We're looking into this, as well as trying to build consensus with the other map vendors on how to approach it. If you're a vendor and what to be part of it, email me (luke at stadiamaps.com).

Glad to see this. I’m a long time mapbox gl js user for https://onthegomap.com which costs $300-400 per month for running my own graphhopper routing servers and Stadia Maps tile hosting. It would cost over $3000 per month to upgrade to 2.0 and I have no need for 3D. I also use mapbox gl js for visualizing large datasets locally (precomoute vector tiles from non-geographic datasets), which doesn’t seems like it needs…

I love your site, thank you for building it!

Re: Mapbox-gl-js is no longer under the 3-Clause BSD license

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What other alternatives exist? I know now: * openlayers, but vector tiles have no web GL support there * Procedural GL JS * tangram * deck.gl (from Uber) * harp.gl (from HERE Maps)

Openlayers has some prototype webgl support that's a bit promising. I enjoyed working with it (but hate working with buggy webgl in general). Leaflet is also great. If you're doing any sort of front end GIS I recommend openlayers above all else including mapbox. But I suspect 99% of users just need basic maps. Leaflet is great for that.

I work on WebGL in Chrome and WebKit and am interested to hear what problems you've experienced with WebGL.

Re: Mapbox-gl-js is no longer under the 3-Clause BSD license

#64
post #60
post #40

Mapbox has been extremely generous in releasing their rendering libraries under a permissive license. Creating a map renderer that matches the user experience of Google Maps is a FAANG-level effort, and Mapbox GL also encompasses: * A single style specification format that works well for both base map rendering and data overlays * Parity across native and web rendering * Smooth SDF text rendering with decent i18n sup…

Thank you! I'd also like to list some of the building blocks of GL JS that remain open source and are heavily used in other open source projects: - GeoJSON-VT (fast GeoJSON processing) https://github.com/mapbox/geojson-vt - Earcut (triangulating polygons) https://github.com/mapbox/earcut - Supercluster (point clustering) https://github.com/mapbox/supercluster - vt-pbf (converting GeoJSON tiles to VT) https://github.c…

Can you comment on how likely similar future license changes are for these libraries? Thanks a lot for your work in the mapping space btw.

Re: Mapbox-gl-js is no longer under the 3-Clause BSD license

#65
post #57

"Mapbox proudly embraces our open source roots" http://www.mapbox.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/abo...

I wrote that paragraph and I agree with the decision to change GL JS's licensing.

I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on this. Was it wrong to openly license v1? Or the market changed enough from v1 to v2 that necessitated this change?

Re: Mapbox-gl-js is no longer under the 3-Clause BSD license

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Openlayers has some prototype webgl support that's a bit promising. I enjoyed working with it (but hate working with buggy webgl in general). Leaflet is also great. If you're doing any sort of front end GIS I recommend openlayers above all else including mapbox. But I suspect 99% of users just need basic maps. Leaflet is great for that.

Openlayers has web GL support but not for vector tiles and I would like to have fast vector tiles :) They removed this support in some previous version, I think. Or do you have a link to a pull request or issue? (IMO Leaflet is dead now that the creator is working since several years for Mapbox)

I suspect Leaflet's current install base is many times that of any alternative - it's certainly not dead, and I'd argue its simplicity makes it ideal for most basic mapping applications.

Re: Mapbox-gl-js is no longer under the 3-Clause BSD license

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Founder, Stadia Maps here. We're looking into this, as well as trying to build consensus with the other map vendors on how to approach it. If you're a vendor and what to be part of it, email me (luke at stadiamaps.com).

Doesn’t deck.gl also use map box? What are they doing?

It looks like they integrate with it, but don't require it directly.

Re: Mapbox-gl-js is no longer under the 3-Clause BSD license

#69
post #64
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! I'd also like to list some of the building blocks of GL JS that remain open source and are heavily used in other open source projects: - GeoJSON-VT (fast GeoJSON processing) https://github.com/mapbox/geojson-vt - Earcut (triangulating polygons) https://github.com/mapbox/earcut - Supercluster (point clustering) https://github.com/mapbox/supercluster - vt-pbf (converting GeoJSON tiles to VT) https://github.c…

Can you comment on how likely similar future license changes are for these libraries? Thanks a lot for your work in the mapping space btw.

I'd say extremely unlikely — it wouldn't make sense both technically (stable, mature, small, razor-focused libraries that are already open source) and business-wise.

As far as I know as someone who worked here for 7+ years (take this as personal opinion), Mapbox wants to keep investing heavily in open source and open data sustainably and indefinitely, and this GL JS change is an unevitable prerequisite for that. This may not be easily apparent at this moment but it will be soon.

Re: Mapbox-gl-js is no longer under the 3-Clause BSD license

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Founder, Stadia Maps here. We're looking into this, as well as trying to build consensus with the other map vendors on how to approach it. If you're a vendor and what to be part of it, email me (luke at stadiamaps.com).

Doesn’t deck.gl also use map box? What are they doing?

deck.gl is completely independent from Mapbox and Mapbox GL JS. You can use it with Google Maps, for example; most people used it with Mapbox because it was the most advanced open source basemap available.

We'll probably end up removing Mapbox from the deck.gl examples, but I can't say for sure.

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