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Comment by uniqueuid | Hacker News Reader

For anyone wondering, this is a fork of the rather popular app maps.me, which also uses Openstreetmap but started monetizing via increasingly intrusive ads in the past.

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Just a glance at maps.me makes it clear why a fork is needed. They've launched a cryptocurrency which seems like a pretty massive red flag: https://maps.me/token/

Oh man.. Zawinski's law said "Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail."[1]

I guess in 2021 the new law is "Every app expands until it can trade crypto."

[1] http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/Z/Zawinskis-Law.html

For what it's worth, paying contributors with fake money is still way more than Google Maps offers it's data sources.

Maps.me was acquired by a company for that purpose.

I'm unfamiliar with maps.me or organicmaps -- what's the value prop versus just downloading a region from the Google Maps app? Is it opting out of big tech? Or is there some other capability that doesn't exist in Google/Apple's apps?

There are three main value propositions in my mind. While these could loosely be summed up as opting out of big tech, I think there is much more here than that.

  1. Freedom. When using Organic Maps, you have the right to use the app in any way you choose; this includes the right to modify and redistribute the app should the developers ever start violating your principles. In fact this is exactly what Organic Maps is. Before Organic Maps, there was Maps.me; this app was also open source but became increasingly user hostile over time. Organic Maps is what happens when the users have this freedom.

  2. Privacy. Even when used offline, Google Maps tracks and reports your location to Google. Organic Maps does not track and report your location to anybody.

  3. Giving Back. While it is possible to suggest edits to Google Maps, these edits become part of Google's proprietary map database and can only be used in accordance with Google's ToS. This means that ultimately, Google's profits are what you are contributing to. Organic Maps, on the other hand, uses OpenStreetMap [0] and allows the user to contribute to it. Data contributed to OpenStreetMap can be freely used by anybody, for any purpose, thus benefiting all humankind rather than just one massive, US based, corporate entity that may not have humankind's interests at heart.

[0] https://www.openstreetmap.org/

Opting out of Big Tech is one. Opting out of tracking is the benefit of organicmaps over Maps.me (as per organicmaps' site).

But then there's OpenStreetMap. Are you familiar with that? It's open data, which is sort of related to opting out of big tech. It's "free" like Wikipedia, nobody can forbid access to the data itself.

Practical benefits: Among OSM applications, Maps.me and organicmaps are more snappy. OsmAnd is a leading OSM application, and it just has a ton of options which is perhaps good for a power user but it's not streamlined.

And then the practical benefit of OSM itself is that while you often don't get as much info as Google Maps, sometimes you get stuff that Google misses. I think a big one is foot trails and stuff. Local enthusiasts like to walk them and fill them in on the map. I added a water reservoir in Berkeley once that was somehow not on Google Maps.

I can't speak to the two you ask about, but, eg. OpenStreetMap has far more useful data than Google/Apple maps (at least in my region). It's a functionality choice rather than privacy/ethical.

For me on Android:

In-car navigation - Waze + AmiGo;

Town centre navigation - Here/OsmAnd;

Searching - Google Maps;

Off-road, tracking, poi info, terrain, overview etc - OsmAnd (OpenStreetMap).

OsmAnd search UX sucks or I'd use it for that as well; the data is there.

Here and OsmAnd are both offline after initial setup, which you will do when you install them, no need to remember to manually prepare local tiles as with Google maps offline.

1. Maps.me and Organic Maps were initially designed for an offline experience, so they don't even try use data when I have a spotty connection. Unless you explicitly disable data, Google Maps will always try to load new tiles. This can be annoying when your reception is weak and Google renders fuzzy tiles instead of falling back on the already downloaded tiles.

2. You can't download offline maps for South Korea in Google Maps. There may be other areas in the world like this.

3. OSM data is better for hiking trails in my experience.

Japan is one.

It was, shouldn't be any more (IIRC it got enabled about 2 years ago?)

Far more walking tracks.

Also Google being an internet connection assumed on in general company makes me worry a bit about being in a situation where I need to use my offline maps and finding they were wiped in an update or something.

This. I've been rediscovering trails in my local area and recording them with my GPS watch. A quick upload and edit into OSM and hopefully others can make use of it. None of this level of detail is available elsewhere.

The styling of Google maps is horrible when you're outside and trying to pick out their super low contrast small roads.

Windy Maps is a pretty good fork too, and from a company with good engineering resources.

Yup, it's great, I used it as well. Just used the routing for jeep touring (using the mountain bike profile) and specifically routing through some places. It works great with offline maps. Also one could just download parts of a jurisdiction if it's bigger, like Northern Greece. The maps are bigger but also contain more information than Here which seems dated, lacks some newly built highway segments in Eastern Europe and will route you on national roads instead.

I read a story about some people who used Google Maps for routing in the far Eastern part of Russia, got routed through a disused road and froze to death. My in-laws were also using Google Maps when they were routed to a different place than the hotel we were supposed to stay in in Serbia, but the locals were kind enough to guide them.

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