From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
I think I used to wardrive around and add open wifi hotspots to that system when I was like 18/19. I had Linux on a laptop and had gotten a crazy wifi antenna and a USB GPS module (along with some less than legal software to crack WEP encryption) and would drive around in my van looking for routers I could hop onto and map which ones worked and had internet.
I'm not sure what map software I was using though. It was some open source thing, and the name sounds really familiar.
I live in an area that was next to perfect when I first learned about OSM, so I had no real reason to contribute. I have seen their maps used by our public transport to show the way to/from stops (or even inside them on the particularly large ones).
This just reminded me that I can in fact contribute and I will check out the iOS options for doing so.
I'll sometimes contribute when I'm travelling to more rural areas which are less likely to be well mapped. The experience in my country has been that cities are very well mapped on OpenStreetMaps with a lot of detail, often having more up to date information than Google Maps. Less populated areas usually don't have as much detail, but the basics, like roads and buildings are usually well mapped.
I've also noticed OpenStreetMaps is awesome for trails and smaller roads used by hikers, usually being much more useful than Google Maps.
I enjoy editing my hometown and have been doing it for about twelve years. But my town is already pretty complete, so I check in every six months or so to change minor details like shops or adding a new bench in the park. In total I'm not even at 200 edits, but I always enjoy seeing those edits back in major tools that use OSM.
I have, using OSMAnd on iOS. Here in Puerto Rico there are quite a good amount of map details already.
Contribute! The info will bubble up into there other products as they all supplement and enrich their data from OSM if applicable.
It's a cool project, but I've used it, and man is it not going to be a replacement for Google Maps anytime soon, as much as I'd like to get to a FOSS alternative. I can't use it to navigate to a building down the street lol
It's not dumb to contribute though because it's already okay, so it can only get better than okay, and the way that happens is contributions
The goal isn't to replace gmaps, though? If it was, I don't think they would care to allow me to map the species of tree of the height of a curb. Some apps are trying to use OSM as a base layer to provide a gmaps alternative, but the real goal is just to map the world, at least to me
I've used their map layers for a public data website. Worked great.
I have added some nearby forest paths to OSM and added some bicycle paths alongside roads which were already mapped, using OSM mostly for outside of road network since other maps do not show forest paths and the like at all while OSM has decent coverage
Just have faith. We'll get there eventually 🙏
Contributed a very little. Been using it ina Top metro city for .ore than a year. Heavily reliable.
I love the idea of OSM, been trying to use MagicEarth on iPhone which leverages OSM, but I run into similar issues that your describe. I’ll be honest tho, I never even thought of trying to contribute, may look into it as a little hobby in my free time.
Awesome, thanks for the post! I've been aware of OSM for a long time, but haven't thought about it in a while. After a couple of good app recommendations from the comments, I am surprised how far it's come. Definitely going to start using/contributing as much as I can.
I've not contributed to the main one, but I have for the humanitarian osm team, you get recently disaster stricken areas and copy roads and buildings and the like
Omg great idea! Probably a stupid question but how did you contribute - through an app or from desktop, through the website?
I’ve contributed a lot of places around the country–though mostly missing cafés & restaurants because that’s what I’m interested in.
We update it a lot. We also have a product (for walkers in the British Isles) called WayMaps (used by a variety of walking web sites in the UK and also our own demo site https://waymaps.the-hug.net/) which uses the geodata from OSM and other Open Data to produce our own map tiles. We love OSM.
I'm honestly very confused by OSM. I always wanted to use it as an alternative to Google Maps, but it's so hard to use.
Anyone got some tips or good ressources to share?
Yes. It is the most up to date map in my area, in point of fact, other maps copy their data from osm for my area.