Open Source Alternative To Google Earth? 190
aws910 writes "Today, I fired up Google Earth to find that the 'points of interest' category had been removed, and a single checkbox is in its place. Certain layers are now entirely inaccessible. Google triggered a user revolt, but admitted fault, and promised to restore full functionality someday. In the meantime, I've found a lack of plausible alternatives. Bing seems nice, but Moonlight crashes the browser on any machine I use, and I'd rather use OSS anyway ... which made me realize there doesn't seem to be a good open-source alternative to Google Earth. Am I missing something?"
Re:Licensing? Severs? (Score:4, Interesting)
Agreed. The question of an open source Google Earth is not the application, but where the data comes from. Google Earth probably would be open source, if Google wasn't afraid their remote protocol would be reverse engineered (at which point they would update it). Anyone who has programmed with the Google Earth COM API knows that Google goes to great lengths to protect the data they store on their servers.
Re:Licensing? Severs? (Score:4, Interesting)
Any company that has huge revenues, that lets top-notch developers work on anything they think is kewl, and is structured so that investors can't complain about them pouring millions into projects that will never monetize. Alas, there's only one of those...
The upside of Google is that they push the state of the art with everything they do, and they provide free access to products that we couldn't afford without them — assuming that these products would even exist without them, which they mostly wouldn't. The downside is that they're total amateurs when it comes to the nuts and bolts of providing a product that isn't buggy, doesn't have major UI issues, and doesn't have weird outages and feature changes without notice. Google Earth seems to typify both the upside and the downside.
Re:Licensing? Severs? (Score:4, Interesting)
I use it to get approximate terrain ideas before flights. It's easier to find passes and get comparative (not actual) mountain heights using that than a topographic map. For actual flight planning, I use the FAA charts, but for quick reference, Google Earth helps a great deal.
Re:Licensing? Severs? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Licensing? Severs? (Score:3, Interesting)
I use it for getting directions. I have a horrible memory for names, but a great one for pictures, and so while I can't remember the name of the street I'm supposed to turn on I can remember what the street corner looked like from above on google earth, imagine what it would look like from a perspective on the ground, then see if I've reached that spot yet.
Google Earth is my goto mapping tool because it makes it FAR easier to know if you're going the right way or not if you've seen it, even just from above (though with more and more incorporated street-view you can now see street-level views of most areas).
Re:Licensing? Severs? (Score:3, Interesting)
But what does Earth give you over just plain Google Maps for that application?
Marble (Score:3, Interesting)
Marble is an amazing program with all kinds of different maps and satelite images it can pull from. It is worth checking out.
It may be available on Windows as well through windows.kde.org
Xastir (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Licensing? Severs? (Score:3, Interesting)
I've used it to learn about geography. Taught me more than I ever got from school.
This will work with google maps, but tends to be a good deal quicker once you get an area cached.
Re:Licensing? Severs? (Score:3, Interesting)
You can run it outside of a browser?
That's all I've got.
I have been toying with the idea of building a GPS nav system out of a netbook, USB GPS receiver and Google Earth, but it's really not any cheaper than buying one (obviously I intend to multi-purpose the netbook, or the costing wouldn't even be comparable).
Re:OSSIMplanet, pTolemy3D, Virtual Ocean and more (Score:3, Interesting)
There is a lot of imagery out there that can be viewed and you can do a lot more outside of GE than you can inside of GE. And With Ww.net and Java, you can also view virtual earth imagery thanks to Microsoft being more open than Google.
Re:Licensing? Severs? (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been working on a similar program for a while called libgis [rose-hulman.edu]. The main difference is that libgis is built as a library instead of an application and uses OpenGL for rendering, which allows it to render terrain. It also uses GTK+ instead of Qt, but that's just due to my personal preferences. Unfortunately, it's not (yet!) as complete as Marble/WorldWind/Google Earth.
Re:Licensing? Severs? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm have to call BS on your cousin.
I actually work in the GIS industry and when Google Earth was released there was a giant "Thank fuck for that" as it meant more people beyond the niche's of mining, government and military started to look at GIS services seriously. Google Earth has been a huge boon for any GIS Analyst trying to sell GIS services.
Previously, when trying to get new clients we had to try an explain a complex field to a perspective client, a lot of "imagine this...", and then watching their eyes glaze over. Now we can say with maps and data we can provide x service, just like Google Earth. We've even been able to sell Google Earth services, putting data into Google Earth and Google Earth training.
Google Earth has opened a niche market into something more mainstream, in general it has been a good thing(TM) for GIS even if you're just grabbing onto Google's coat tails for a bit of extra revenue (like a A$500 a seat one day Google Earth training course).
Google have a relationship with GeoEye for satellite data and they are most certainly not giving it away for free, either raw or processed. If you actually want the imagery for manipulation or publication you need to pay.
Re:OSSIMplanet, pTolemy3D, Virtual Ocean and more (Score:3, Interesting)
Or if you just need a map for driving, there is OpenStreetMap: http://www.openstreetmap.org/ [openstreetmap.org]
Nothing very fancy, but not bad at all for what it is.