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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

#171

What a shame. I guess they got sick of people taking their code and ripping out their API subscriptions. For anyone interested in an open source mapping library (that also has 3D support) that can handle raster data (including the Mapbox tiles), I launched a project 2 weeks ago that is the culmination of 7 years effort: https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/ . I must say (while acknowledging my huge bias) t…

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)

The ESRI JavaScript API https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/showcase/

It does 3d, 2d, vector tiles, client side geoprocessing, and plenty of open data/service types

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

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you just use the old version? Only the new code is under this new license.

Of course! And that's what everyone will keep doing for a while. However, without a maintained version, it will eventually wither from neglect.

We're still using v0.47 on our project! Our use case is basic, and we like map rendering to be a set it and forget it deal. Since 0.47 I hadn't ever thought, "I wonder if there's an update." Of course, NOW I'm thinking about it. And I'm thinking of switching to leaflet.

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

#173

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)

Will any of these work with LIDAR data under their 3D rendering? I'm keen on industrial archaeology and it's really helpful to have 3D visualisations of sites like old quarries. Stand-alone 3D models can be done like [1] and the detail is substantially better compared to the map 3D views [2] (pits are pits again!) but I want to embed these into a website and start overlaying other data - just like I can with Mapbox m…

You might be interested in this: https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/...

I have seen in demos coming from a few construction projects using this.

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

#174

What a shame. I guess they got sick of people taking their code and ripping out their API subscriptions. For anyone interested in an open source mapping library (that also has 3D support) that can handle raster data (including the Mapbox tiles), I launched a project 2 weeks ago that is the culmination of 7 years effort: https://github.com/felixpalmer/procedural-gl-js/ . I must say (while acknowledging my huge bias) t…

Looks like you're making good progress on windows, less spikes in terrain than I saw last time (I think it was the same project). We also created a 3D renderer for sports tracking app Ayvri. Our standard player is Cesium, but if you click on the view beta link, you'll see our custom renderer. Still improvements to be made in tile loading. https://ayvri.com/scene/v5plro09jr/cki6prg1a00013b6baegp6ub6

Isn't your custom player also Cesium? I see a Cesium logo in the top right on both players

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

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not only GL JS. If Mapbox wants to keep investing heavily in open source why is it that 3 bigger mapbox libraries have a commercial license after it was open source a while ago? (mapbox navigation android & mapbox GL Native)

Thanks Peter for calling this out. It's unfortunate that many businesses made the decision to work with mapbox-native and mapbox-gl-js based off the premise they could self-host and save money. It definitely feels like a bad bait and switch, and right after it gained market dominance too. Bad taste in my mouth for Mapbox products now, though clearly this is just whining because they will be successful with this chang…

I wouldn't be working for Mapbox if it actually were a villainous company with an evil plan to "bait and switch" with open source, or undercut all these small competing businesses just out of spite, and it's easy to succumb to these simplistic conspiracies in the heat of the moment, but I do hope these sentiments will be short-lived.

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

#176
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Congratulations on the V2 release! Does this release set the stage for (extruded) buildings to be "addressable" in 3D? eg. Can you place a marker 5 stories up on a 10 floor building?

Thanks! We're going to look into that soon https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-gl-js/issues/9945

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

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> We'll probably end up removing Mapbox from the deck.gl examples

If that's because of the licensing, would you remove Google Maps & ArcGIS examples as well?

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

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have nothing against people wanting to make money but don't put a free product then yank it out under my feet once I'm comfortable using it (I'm not affected in this case since i don't use mapbox, but the CentOS treachery is still hurting). At least 50% of my work projects happen because the resources I'm using are free. If it isn't free, the project either doesn't happen, or I spend a few months coding what is mis…

> but don't put a free product then yank it out under my feet once I'm comfortable using it Why? This strategy often maximizes shareholder value. Provide a free product in the growth phase and once you shake off competitors and build a moat (aka a monopoly), you start taking profits. Charging money during the growth phase will slow down the growth.

I can't tell if you're serious or if it's sarcasm but I'll assume it's serious.

First as bigbubba said it's a dick move and second, do you really want users that have no trust in your company. Google is missing a lot of potential users for its cloud business due to them killing products on seemingly random basis.

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

#179
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It is not only GL JS. If Mapbox wants to keep investing heavily in open source why is it that 3 bigger mapbox libraries have a commercial license after it was open source a while ago? (mapbox navigation android & mapbox GL Native)

Speculating (remember that I'm just an engineer and not in charge of business decisions), but perhaps because Mapbox tried really hard to build a business on server-side services alone while gifting most of its innovations to the world, and after a decade of enormous effort, keeping the client of such enormous complexity fully open source appears to be unsustainable? Would you rather see Mapbox getting eaten by big tech corporations and ceasing to exist?

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

#180
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Any plans for monetization you can share? $300-400 per month seems an expensive gift to the public ...

The site shows google ads when the screen is big enough, luckily that covers the monthly hosting costs. Would definitely like to find a value-adding (rather than reducing) way to cover the costs though. I've been thinking about adding an account system where you can save a couple routes for free and unlimited with a subscription, along with other "premium" features, but haven't finalized anything yet. Definitely open to suggestions :-)
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