OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble
I remember just a few years ago, I got a new phone and was interested in replacing as many Google apps with OSS maps that I could. (K9 instead of Google&#x27;s mail app, etc.)<p>Naturally I turned to OSM instead of Google Maps. But I was really surprised by how strange and difficult it was to install and use. As the author mentioned, OSM itself doesn&#x27;t have any apps, which is very confusing. After some research I figured out that you have to download a 3rd party app. The 3rd party apps that do exist all use different terminologies, require downloading huge amounts of data and picking what maps you want ahead of time, and had different levels of functionality. The UIs were universally terrible (at the time at least).<p>Needless to say I quickly gave up on using OSM and turned back to Google Maps--and I&#x27;m their perfect use case, a skilled techie with a deep interest in using free software!  I can&#x27;t imagine trying to explain how to use OSM to my mom, even if I somehow managed to install it for her.<p>I can&#x27;t comment on the rest of the article but its usability worries are on point.