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Trip Planning Software for Linux? 62

Posted by Cliff from the plotting-your-nomadic-wanderings dept.
imadcow1 asks: "I recently went on a trip that involved many destinations. I had to use Yahoo Driving Directions which was not efficient at all. Is there a trip planning program (open source or not) for Linux?"
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Trip Planning Software for Linux? More

Trip Planning Software for Linux?

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  • Personally, I use (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mordant ( 138460 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @05:05AM (#10698116)
    NetHack. [nethack.org] ;>

  • Use the Open Source model (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @05:07AM (#10698124)
    Have everyone in the vehicle yell and scream about which direction to go and let the driver take the suggestions as he likes and where they end up is their destination.

    Look where Linux is today!
  • I am also interested in a complete mapping and routing solutions, especially with my upcoming GPS purchase, I really want to have not just a workable solution, but the best on the market.

    I am not too bothered about sources, if it works, but price is an issue naturally. If it was open source but too expensive, then I would opt for a cheaper closed source version if it was as good.
    • If it was open source but too expensive

      Huh?

      Use the source.
        • If source code is freely (speech & beer)available (one of the elements necessary for a product being "open source", or "Free" in the RMS sense), then it can be built into the product w/o paying anyone a dime.

          Service contracts, subscription memberships, and the like are creative ways of packaging the source and adding value, justifying your paying instead of compiling it yourself. People will always pay for convenience, and support.

          But if money truly is the beginning and the end of the argument, an ope
          • You can have 100% GPL software and charge $10 Million for it.

            GPL doesn't define its price tag. Only your rights.

            You can also release it under two licenses, one proprietary for instance, which gives no rights of modification or distro (or no source!!) for free even, and this is free beer, but EGADS! you cannot tinker.

            NOW, linux distros can just charge for a download of the kernel, but they wouldn't do much business, they charge for thier whole package, etc etc, which, wow, is like free commerce ain't it,
  • I've been looking around, and there seems to be a lack of local South African PC map programs available that is not part of a GPS purchase and that does not cost an arm and a leg.

    Anyone know of a company with good map coverage selling PC map software (with portable data files that could be used under Linux)?

  • Route 66 software (Score:3, Informative)

    by GreatDrok ( 684119 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @05:47AM (#10698297) Journal
    I have a copy of the European Route 2000 from Route 66 and it runs pretty well under Crossover Office. It would probably also run well under generic WINE. I know it isn't Linux native software but the fact that it runs is something and I found it pretty decent when planning my trip to Austria a few years back.

    Can't vouch for the current 2004 edition unfortunately but if they haven't made too many changes it should still work.
  • The Travelling Salesman Problem [wolfram.com] remains NP-complete, and I don't think Linux or any other open source software is going to change that. So, in other words, your options may come down to an inefficient solution like you have now, or an efficient solution that takes longer to calculate than the inefficient route takes to travel. :)
    • The Travelling Salesman Problem remains NP-complete,

      ... and has nothing to with planning a route from A to B, for which the optimal solution can be constructed with little effort. The TSP, the route has to pass through (many) more than two points without a requirement on the order. That is what makes it NP-complete.

  • Er... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dasunt ( 249686 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @06:19AM (#10698392)

    "I recently went on a trip that involved many destinations. I had to use Yahoo Driving Directions which was not efficient at all. Is there a trip planning program (open source or not) for Linux?"

    Obviously I need to hand in my geek registration card, since I'm don't see why a simple ink-and-paper road atlas won't work.

    Lets review the advantages:

    • Cheap: Tends to be $19.99 or less.
    • Easy to use: As long as you have the basic skills of a chimp and know alphabetical order, you should do fine.
    • Theft-resistance: Nobody breaks a car window to steal a road atlas, as opposed to a PDA.
    • Very portable: The smallest models will fit in a pocket.
    • Easy to find/replace: Check the corner gas station or local mega-borgmart.
    • With "flashlight" accessory, can be used in the dark.
    • With "small notepad and pencil" accessory, can be used to write detailed directions (note, some thinking may be required.
    • Used by professionals: Many truckers travel thousands of miles and to unknown destinations using nothing more then a road atlas.

    As long as you are traveling, why not pick up a road atlas? Just spend 5 minutes in advance to figure out your trip, right the directions down in large type so you can glance at them while driving, and record any landmarks before you need to make a road change (after Large City USA, I need to turn south on I3117). Then keep the most recent route change in your head while driving.

    • Re:Er... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by jbarr ( 2233 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:59AM (#10699282) Homepage
      I have to agree with you 100%.

      When we moved to South Carolina, I downloaded the latest county maps from Mapopolis for my Palm Tungsten T3, and thought "Cool, I can find anything now!" Yes, it was useful, but over time, it turns out that the absolute best resource we ever found was a paper map that we obtained from the local Chamber of Commerce. That map was our "lifeline" for the first several months while we learned the town. Yes, the Palm version was decent, and it had all the bells and whistles, but for absolute convenience and ease of use, the paper map wins out every time.

    • Re:Er... (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by Blakey Rat ( 99501 )
      I hate comments like this because they always get posted, and they always get moderated up, and I don't understand it because they DO NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION.

      The question was not "what should I use for trip planning?" The question was "what trip planning software is available for Linux?" The parent answers the first question, but doesn't even start to consider the actual question posted.

      The parent is -1 off-topic, somebody moderate him that way.
      • hey, it's lateral thinking, man... No, the (grand)parent didn't directly answer the question, but they did offer an alternate solution, which may cause the story poster (and readers) to go down different paths they never thought of going down. I know it certainly made me stop and think for a moment, because I've been obsessed with finding a trip-planner for Linux too... this guy made me think, "hey, maybe paper maps are good enough; I never thought about that before."

  • AAA Internet TripTik (Score:5, Informative)

    by infernalC ( 51228 ) <matthew.mellon@g o o g l e . com> on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @07:27AM (#10698585) Homepage Journal
    AAA Internet TripTik is very good and works in Firefox. I think you have to be a member of AAA, though. It allows multiple destinations, etc.

    AAA website [aaa.com]
  • If so, that's your best bet. It, VPCWin, VS.net, and an old Entertainment Pack Chess game are their best work.

    I don't know if the GPS in the GPS edition of S&T 2K5 works on Linux, or if the software works on Crossover, but it's worth a shot.
    • It, VPCWin, VS.net, and an old Entertainment Pack Chess game are their best work

      MS Streets, bought from another company (my wife owned the Mac version before they were bought).
      VPCWin, bought from another company (Connectix)
      VS.Net (ok, they might have developed this, but it may be derived from another company AFAIK)
      Chess, a basic computer program that has been written so many times, why *wouldn't* they buy it from another company.

      "their best work" - pick something more original / innovative (personalally

  • This has been discussed before (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @08:41AM (#10698830) Homepage Journal
    This Slashdot story discussed the same issue - specifically the possibility of getting Delorme [delorme.com] to port their trip planning software to Linux.

    In this comment [slashdot.org] I asked people to write to Delorme and request this, and to respond to this Journal Entry [slashdot.org] telling me they had done so. In the past I have contacted Delorme about this, and they keep telling me "Oh, we've never had any requests for this" - demonstrably false after my first request, so I wanted to have the evidence to point to in order to bring more pressure to bear upon Delorme.

    And as I commented in this journal entry [slashdot.org] the result was a big, fat zero. There were no replies to my journal entry, and as far as I can tell, no replies to Delorme.

    Now, what does this tell us? When a story like that hits the front page of Slashdot, and fails to engender enough support to even generate one response, then the only thing one can conclude is that there is not enough demand for this product to make it worth anybody's time to do. Hell, I do software design for a living - and were I working for Delorme I would not recommend spending any effort to do a port precisely for this reason. The opportunity cost is too high - even if the cost of a port is only a few man-weeks, the money you can make spending those man-weeks on improving the Windows product is FAR greater than the money you would make on the Linux port.

    Furthermore, I would assert that a program like this is very difficult to do in a Free Software environment, due to the dependance upon a large, detailed, and accurate database. One lone hacker can create a vector map display widget, one lone hacker can create a route planning routine, but one lone hacker cannot create a detailed database of roads (including road type, speed limit, any one-way restrictions, etc.) attractions, exit services, hotels, etc. The only way I could see to do this would be to allow submissions by the public to a database, with some sort of reputation system and approval system (think Wikipedia. Or more realistically, think Slashdot. Do you really want your trip planning software trying to route to on 69 Goatse Rd. to the Portman Museum of Grits in Frist Prost, AR?)

    I shall say it again: IF this is something that matters to you, write a polite letter to:
    sales@delorme.com [mailto]

    or better still, write (on paper, with proper spelling) to



    DeLorme
    Two DeLorme Drive
    P.O. Box 298
    Yarmouth, ME 04096
    USA


    The head of Delorme's name is David Delorme, perhaps you could address your letters to "Sales Manager" and CC David Delorme.

    And again, if you do so, please drop me a line as a response to this post.
    • While I didn't get around to it the first time, I did just send my request for a linux version. Personally I use microsoft mappoint. its overpowerful as a trip planner, but it works. I'd love an open source one where I could fix the few problems that annoy me.
    • I don't think we need DeLorme to port their software. All I'd need is their database in usable form if you're a licensee of the Windows version. Free software for route planning exists (or can exist easily, as you state), but the map is the problem.

      Oh, and USGS or some other source should have a map database. The base map, less DeLorme's updates, is common to all mapping software, and IIRC it's a government organization that produces it, ergo it's public domain.
      • I believe what you're referring to is TIGER/Line.

        It contains a full and reasonably accurate road map of the United States. It's not necessarily good for routing because it does not include information on speed limits (you can guess based on road type, and many of the mapping packages out there do this and not actual speed limit storage) or more importantly, one-way streets.
        • Once the map is in place in an OSS program, an online submission and approval system should be able to get proper speed limits and one-way routings in by the next release. I'll be glad to go through the streets I see and mark speed limits if it means I'll get similar info on other parts of the country I may visit.
          • You should be able to contact your local Highway Patrol and ask for a map of speed limits.

            Also a wiki should be able to handle the process of updating the information. The info would be based on exit numbers (or generated numbers if they don't exist for that road).
      • What about local GIS data? Just about every county has a gis department.
    • Well no one asking for this feature really means very few. You would need thousands to ask for this.
      Truth is maping is moving more to the internet and devices.
      Good luck I would love an open source solution
    • hi...at DeLorme, we do read slashdot. we do talk about porting to linux- pretty much every day. however, we are still a software company that must sell hundreds of thousands of titles to make the cost of a port viable (it's more than a few person-weeks.) right now i don't think the linux user base is large enough to support this, even if all linux users considered buying software in general- mapping software in particular. however- we appreciate the discussion and reiteration that there is a growing inter
      • Something I've wondered - how big is the software devel group there? And are the bulk of the apps writting in VC++ or VB?

        And something to consider - perhaps as others have said, making the program itself FOSS but making the dataset a licensed item (with a severely limited dataset made available as FOSS) might work - the old "give away the razor, sell the blades" model might work.

        Hell, even identifying why the programs don't work with Wine and feeding that back to Winedev would be enough - I used to be abl
        • the group is currently 20 developers. all apps are written in VC++, except components of the web apps of course. the FOSS program- licensed data model has been discussed and is interesting...would still take development effort i think. i don't know the answer to the wine question, I will ask someone here to respond with more details.
          • The last time I tried to run one of our apps (Topo USA 4.0) under WINE (binary) it could not get past the COM elements. We do a lot of crazy stuff at the COM layer, since ATL had not completely gelled to our liking when core parts of the second generation app were built. I have not tried again in the last two years, and it has been a long while since I tried to just port the code itself and build it under WINE.

            Brook is right on target, the app is written entirely in VC++. The minimum build is 3,500K
            • by the way...we are always interested in new product ideas (i'm in biz dev) so feel free to contact me. we are also hiring VC++ programmers- if you looking and local to southern Maine, please send an email to jobs at delorme.com

  • For debian... (Score:5, Informative)

    by tordia ( 45075 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @09:03AM (#10698923) Homepage
    apt-get install routeplanner
    -or-
    apt-get install routeplanner-gnome

    The debian version is 0.16, but the sourceforge version is 0.11, and the version on the project's homepage is 0.6. The last debian version was uploaded in June of this year. The others were released in 2001, so I guess the debian version is the only one still being actively developed (or released anyway).

    I don't have a lot of experience with this package. I've only tried it a couple times, but so far so good.

  • A Zaurus with CF-GPS Card and qpeGPS software? (Score:5, Informative)

    by scupper ( 687418 ) * on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @10:02AM (#10699299) Homepage
    This "quest" for a Linux mapping solution reminded me of my own; I've recently been thinking about (rather procrastinating) over buying a Garmin IQUE 3600 [garmin.com]. In my reading and comp'ing of pdas with GPS/Mapping software, I looked at the Linux-OS-based Sharp Zaurus [sharpusa.com] which gets a lot of (well earned) attention here.

    I was looking for more than the Zaurus was offering, but here's what I found and bookmarked. I'm sure others here using the Zaurus will be able to fill in the blanks and share other gps mapping OSS projects out there, if they exist, which I wasn't able to find, other than three below. Zaurus Users Group [zaurususergroup.com] might have some info as well. Bill Kendrick [slashdot.org] is also a good resource about these.

    SOFTWARE:
    GPSGaugeLite
    MFG: Serialio
    http://www.serialio.com/products/GPSGaugeLite.htm [serialio.com]

    SOFTWARE:
    qpeGPS
    http://qpegps.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]

    Screenshots [sourceforge.net] | Tested GPS Units [sourceforge.net]

    SOFTWARE:
    zGPS
    http://www.handango.com/sharp/PlatformProductDetai l.jsp?siteId=423.............
    http://tinyurl.com/6lau7 [tinyurl.com]

    HARDWARE:
    Model Name: CF Card -GPS Navigation Receiver
    Manufacturer: AmbiCom
    http://myzaurus.com/acc_Comm10.asp [myzaurus.com]

    HARDWARE:
    Serial GPS Receiver
    Model Name:GPS-U2-Z9
    Manufacturer:Serialio.com
    http://myzaurus.com/acc_Serial10.asp [myzaurus.com]

    • I was checking out my Knoppix distro, and whadya you know, an app call "gpsdrive [kraftvoll.at]" is packaged with it and can be run on a pda [kraftvoll.at]. I'm thinking that I should give a used Zaurus a chance before pluncking down $500 for a Garmin IQUE 3600 and the car kit.
      GPSdrive has a project page [freshmeat.net] on freshmeat, and I also came across this earlier /. article [slashdot.org] discussing GPS with PDAs and this post [slashdot.org] mentioning gpsdrive.

  • Nope. (Score:2)

    by GypC ( 7592 )
    Scratch that itch, hacker boy.
  • the pocket pda (I use a palm-os device with gps built in) is really the best trip 'planner'. since you have a constant stream of datapoints (ie, the gps receiver). its great to have a static map, but its far better to be able to drive offcourse, have it go 'bing-bong, offcourse! re-routing...'. really, its a different driving experience.

    in terms of writing apps, the garmin unit I have uses palm-os and I believe there's a gps api that you can write to to get various bits of info. there are 3rd party gp
  • After I bought my GPS mouse receiver I searched a lot about mapping software which I could use for trip-planning ,navigation etc under GNU/Linux.
    But there are none available which will run natively in GNU/Linux.
    You will find a lot of software which can read the output from the GPS and show your position.There are open-source projects which can even show your location on the maps ,but the maps do not have Street names.

    So the thing which is missing is lack of a mapping software that is a software which has m

  • another vote for... (Score:3, Informative)

    by nusratt ( 751548 ) on Tuesday November 02, 2004 @04:47PM (#10703764) Journal
    ...AAA, even though it's not a local host app as you're seeking.
    Yes, you DO have to be a member of AAA.
    Its benefit is NOT merely that it allows multiple intermediate waypoints:
    it has the smoothest, most flexible, useful, time-saving UI I've seen for such apps, MUCH better than mapquest, mapblast, etc.

    Borrow someone's ID and try it, especially the mouse-over and "modify trip" functions.
    If you like it, maybe you can find a PC-based version of whatever they use.
    • It is unlikely that AAA would make the map software available for use on a local computer, as they had done something similar and stopped.

      Delorme used to have a program called AAA MapNGo, which was Delorme's map data of streets combined with AAA's attractions database. When the contract with AAA came up for renewal, AAA refused.

      Look at it from AAA's perspective - one of the draws to being a AAA member is the trip planning function of the AAA website. If you can buy a program that does this, you can now pl
      • Well, yes and no.

        I contend that the main reason for purchases of AAA memberships -- FAR outweighing the TOTAL import of ALL other reasons COMBINED -- is roadside service.

        If you then consider the revenue from auto insurance and auto-purchase financing, I think that website traffic is virtually irrelevant to their revenue.

        In my own case, I discovered their online app only accidentally, after years of being an AAA member.

        Anyhow, I was suggesting NOT that AAA might sell their own app (although I still don't
  • Sorry, the Web is the platform now.

    Yahoo, MapQuest, MapBlast, etc.

    Scoble mentioned one, mappoint I think.

    Google for scoble map.
  • http://www.infone.com/
  • > I had to use Yahoo Driving Directions which was not efficient at all.

    Heh. I don't know if you guys have ever been to places like India, where driving directions are uncommon on highways, let alone on the Internet.

    Really, you Westerners won't know how much comforts you have unless you visit the less fortunate parts of the world.

    --
  • There's a project called roadmap [digitalomaha.net] that uses the US Census Bureau TIGER vector maps. It doesn't yet have trip planning capability, though.
  • Read the post title as Trepanning Software for Linux. Sounds more appropriate for the Mac.

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