Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Organic Maps

organicmaps.app

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 382 posts

Re: Organic Maps

#361

Post by MaxMatti »

z3ugma wrote: post #193
Yacoby wrote: post #3

There is also CoMaps ( https://www.comaps.app/ ) which is a fork of Organic Maps, after concern over the governance of Organic Maps https://itsfoss.com/news/organic-maps-fork-comaps/

Just downloaded CoMaps. Why does it start with a zoomed out view of the entire world, especially given that I gave it location services and it shows my current location (in North America). The very first UX experience this app gives is "I am primarily for people interested in maps and geography" Contrast this with Apple Maps - when you open it, there are 4 big tap controls for actions like "Home" "Work", a search bar…

When I downloaded it via F-Droid earlier today it did what wanted. Unfortunately Android Auto is only enabled in the Play Store Version, so I downloaded that and there it went the same as for you. At least it immediately prompted me to download my local tile set when I tapped the geolocation button to zoom in.

Re: Organic Maps

#362

Post by ryukoposting »

nekusar wrote: post #130
ryukoposting wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll preface this by saying I can't speak for India. I live in the US. Use your own discretion to decide what here might apply to you. I've been using Organic Maps for almost 3 years. I lived in Chicago during this time, as well as some smaller American cities. I go back and forth between Organic Maps and GMaps depending on the situation. I've found that Organic Maps' lack of traffic data isn't a big deal for me. It…

I prefer Google Maps cause they'll tell you where pigs camp out. Saved me a lot of speeding tickets on the interstate.

This is a nice feature, I'll give you that, especially when you're in a new place. Social conventions of driving vary a lot, and "hey there's a cop ahead" is a good reminder to check yourself.

I'm no speed demon (it's just not worth it IMO). But, in Chicago you can do 10-15 over on an interstate and nobody cares. The cops are doing 20 over. If I saw someone actually doing 55 on the Dan Ryan I just assumed they were stoned, and I'm only half-joking. Elsewhere around the Great Lakes, it was more like 5-10 over. Meanwhile, in the Bay Area the flow of unimpeded traffic is usually only 0-5 over.

Re: Organic Maps

#363

Post by IndySun »

birdsongs wrote: post #338
IndySun wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ditched osmand because the interface is so convoluted. Ridiculously so. Plus theres a facebook pixel in there somewhere, at least there was when I dropped it 10 years ago. CoMaps seem sincere. For Nordic/outdoors, outcomes using either osmand/comaps/etc in practice are going to be very similar.

Not sure where in the Nordics you are, but just want to plug ut.no and norgeskart.no for really fantastic Norway navigation. Both have free apps (norgeskart has a 50kr / year subscription to support and add more features), and both are incredible for navigating trails, marked and otherwise, anywhere Norway.

Great detail on norgeskart.no. Thanks for the headsup.

Re: Organic Maps

#364

Post by TFNA »

bluebarbet wrote: post #274
TFNA wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maps.me got sold to a series of subsequent owners. It was those subsequent owners who enshittified the app, not the original developers mentioned in your quotation. The original developers only later returned to the codebase, because it was freely licensed, and forked it in a different direction.

Why do people inflict this on themselves? OsmAnd has all the features of Organic Maps and CoMaps and MapsMe (in fact three times more features) and in 15 years of using it I have not any of these problems.

We’re on a nerd forum, so of course some of us love OSMAnd. But the general public finds that app too confusing. I know this firsthand because I’m in a travel subculture where OSMAnd provides a very useful tool that Maps.me/Organic Maps/CoMaps does not, but whenever I recommend OSMAnd people react very badly to the app and get angry at me for directing them to something so unpleasant.

Re: Organic Maps

#365

Post by IndySun »

liotier wrote: post #313
IndySun wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ditched osmand because the interface is so convoluted. Ridiculously so. Plus theres a facebook pixel in there somewhere, at least there was when I dropped it 10 years ago. CoMaps seem sincere. For Nordic/outdoors, outcomes using either osmand/comaps/etc in practice are going to be very similar.

> I ditched osmand because the interface is so convoluted. Ridiculously so OSMand is a cartographer's friend - it does everything and more... With all the drawbacks of doing that. CoMaps is better targeted to the needs of most people.

>CoMaps is better targeted to the needs of most people.

Thank you. Both use OSM. The similarities are so slight I'd be inclined to recommend a region specific map, as is our friend with norgeskart.no for those particular cases.

I admit I haven't reloaded OsmAND this year, but I do every year, and delete it every year. Moreover, for me, using OSM is partly to get away from trackers, and facebook at all costs.

Re: Organic Maps

#366

Post by flaburgan »

hinata08 wrote: post #131
david-gpu wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All these apps rely on the data provided by OpenStreetMap (OSM). It is a Wikipedia-like project where anybody can contribute edits. https://www.openstreetmap.org/

yeah, so were LibreOffice and OpenOffice relying on the .odt format CoMaps forked out of OrganicMaps after a row about money

Here is the open letter to Organic Maps owners written by people who then forked it to Comaps, if you are interested: https://www.comaps.app/news/2025-04-16/1/

Re: Organic Maps

#367

Post by jaakl »

RetroTechie wrote: post #165
palata wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The sillyness & waste of this is obvious Until you realise that there is not one true way to show a map, and that different apps may actually have different needs. Suddenly it becomes obvious that not all apps can use the same shared offline data.

There's no fundamental reason that underlying map data used by a good % of mapping apps, couldn't be stored 1x on-device, in some standard format and shared across apps. Users could pick & choose what subset(s) of map data they want to store locally. Different apps could pick & choose what features to offer, how to use available data & how to render it. Sad to see that such a conceptually simple problem hasn't been a…

There are a few fundamental reasons: 1. at least iOs app privacy/sandboxing model makes sharing any data files pretty difficult, if impossible. I suspect Android has similar issue. 2. there is no such thing as "just map data" - every app has to do opinionated decision what they need in their maps data (e.g. aerials, elevation, choice of POIs, languages etc), how it gets styled (it makes requirements to actual data). And this is for just simple base map data, you have also routing, address search databases etc on top. So there is not much to share really, and not easy to share. Not even talking about huge challenge to standardize it. (I'm founder of Nutiteq, we also did FOSS SDKs for offline maps)

Re: Organic Maps

#368

Post by bronson »

eisa01 wrote: post #27
bronson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's one more for me: reliable store hours.

Agree, which is why I added support for displaying when the hours were last updated in CoMaps Organic Maps didn’t accept my PR with it… https://codeberg.org/comaps/comaps/issues/688

> This is now out in the August 31 release!

Almost a year ago, that is SO COOL! I'll be trying CoMaps for store hours now.

Re: Organic Maps

#369

Post by flaburgan »

CircuitSeuss wrote: post #231
z3ugma wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just downloaded CoMaps. Why does it start with a zoomed out view of the entire world, especially given that I gave it location services and it shows my current location (in North America). The very first UX experience this app gives is "I am primarily for people interested in maps and geography" Contrast this with Apple Maps - when you open it, there are 4 big tap controls for actions like "Home" "Work", a search bar…

Unfortunately I have yet to find an OSM app that offers a properly usable modern interface. Most are passable if you are a nerd who doesn’t mind being inconvenienced and can work around the quirks; my non techy friends open the app once and immediately delete it. We really need an Apple or Google maps clone.

Murena (the company behind the /e/ mobile OS) is developing a FOSS app, maybe it will suit your needs : https://murena.com/en/murena-maps-your-questions-and-answers...

Re: Organic Maps

#370

Post by bluebarbet »

TFNA wrote: post #364
bluebarbet wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people inflict this on themselves? OsmAnd has all the features of Organic Maps and CoMaps and MapsMe (in fact three times more features) and in 15 years of using it I have not any of these problems.

We’re on a nerd forum, so of course some of us love OSMAnd. But the general public finds that app too confusing. I know this firsthand because I’m in a travel subculture where OSMAnd provides a very useful tool that Maps.me/Organic Maps/CoMaps does not, but whenever I recommend OSMAnd people react very badly to the app and get angry at me for directing them to something so unpleasant.

You're right, of course. Whenever I evangelize for OsmAnd, what always surprises me is that nobody has even heard of it. Must be for a reason.

The developers seem a serious bunch, the issue tracker has been actively curated for years (although it's snowed under). They have a subscription business model, which is a bit opaque but seems to be functional. And yet everyone always has the same complaint about the app: terrible UX.

If only the Organic Maps people had contributed their undoubted skills to improving OsmAnd.

Post reply on HN