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Thank you! I'd also like to list some of the building blocks of GL JS that remain open source and are heavily used in other open source projects: - GeoJSON-VT

Thank you! I'd also like to list some of the building blocks of GL JS that remain open source and are heavily used in other open source projects: - GeoJSON-VT (fast GeoJSON processing) https://github.com/mapbox/geojson-vt https://github.com/mapbox/geojson-vt - Earcut (triangulating polygons) https://github.com/mapbox/earcut https://github.com/mapbox/earcut - Supercluster (point clustering) https://github.com/mapbox/supercluster https://github.com/mapbox/supercluster - vt-pbf (converting GeoJSON tiles to VT) https://github.com/mapbox/vt-pbf https://github.com/mapbox/vt-pbf - vector-tile (decoding vector tiles) https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-js https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-js - pbf (fast reading/writing of protobuf) https://github.com/mapbox/pbf https://github.com/mapbox/pbf - TinySDF (generating SDF from local CJK fonts) https://github.com/mapbox/tiny-sdf https://github.com/mapbox/tiny-sdf - Potpack (generating sprite layouts) https://github.com/mapbox/potpack https://github.com/mapbox/potpack - grid-index (spatial index for collisions/querying) https://github.com/mapbox/grid-index https://github.com/mapbox/grid-index - Pixelmatch (image comparison in render tests) https://github.com/mapbox/pixelmatch https://github.com/mapbox/pixelmatch - Polylabel (fitting labels into polygons) https://github.com/mapbox/polylabel https://github.com/mapbox/polylabel

easbar 6y ago
Can you comment on how likely similar future license changes are for these libraries? Thanks a lot for your work in the mapping space btw.
- mourner 6y ago
  I'd say extremely unlikely — it wouldn't make sense both technically (stable, mature, small, razor-focused libraries that are already open source) and business-wise. As far as I know as someone who worked here for 7+ years (take this as personal opinion), Mapbox wants to keep investing heavily in open source and open data sustainably and indefinitely, and this GL JS change is an unevitable prerequisite for that. This may not be easily apparent at this moment but it will be soon.
  - karussell 6y ago
    It is not only GL JS. If Mapbox wants to keep investing heavily in open source why is it that 3 bigger mapbox libraries have a commercial license after it was open source a while ago? (mapbox navigation android & mapbox GL Native)
    - anonfornoreason 6y ago
      Thanks Peter for calling this out. It's unfortunate that many businesses made the decision to work with mapbox-native and mapbox-gl-js based off the premise they could self-host and save money. It definitely feels like a bad bait and switch, and right after it gained market dominance too. Bad taste in my mouth for Mapbox products now, though clearly this is just whining because they will be successful with this change. They just get to feel like bad people for doing it, or at least I hope they do.
      - mourner 6y ago
        I wouldn't be working for Mapbox if it actually were a villainous company with an evil plan to "bait and switch" with open source, or undercut all these small competing businesses just out of spite, and it's easy to succumb to these simplistic conspiracies in the heat of the moment, but I do hope these sentiments will be short-lived.
        anonfornoreason 6y ago
        “Oh look here’s an unattended purse, I need the money so I’ll just take it. They left it here anyway” Introducing a drastic billing change under the implied threat that your year or more of man hours performed using an underlying open source library with an understandable billing model is now potentially at risk, is shady. These billing changes make some self hosted tile users go from $0 to tens of thousands of dollars a month in usage. It’s shady, don’t lie to yourself. Also, you are not your company. I am not saying you are shady, because you are just a person who has bills and a skill and you need a salary. Don’t conflate criticisms of your employer as attacks on yourself, or you can have a hard time seeing what other people see. Tricking yourself to believe something that might not be true is one of the worst thing you can do.
kiliancs 6y ago
About Polylabel, I found this blog post more informative than the readme in the repo.

easbar 6y ago

Can you comment on how likely similar future license changes are for these libraries? Thanks a lot for your work in the mapping space btw.

mourner 6y ago
I'd say extremely unlikely — it wouldn't make sense both technically (stable, mature, small, razor-focused libraries that are already open source) and business-wise. As far as I know as someone who worked here for 7+ years (take this as personal opinion), Mapbox wants to keep investing heavily in open source and open data sustainably and indefinitely, and this GL JS change is an unevitable prerequisite for that. This may not be easily apparent at this moment but it will be soon.
- karussell 6y ago
  It is not only GL JS. If Mapbox wants to keep investing heavily in open source why is it that 3 bigger mapbox libraries have a commercial license after it was open source a while ago? (mapbox navigation android & mapbox GL Native)
  - anonfornoreason 6y ago
    Thanks Peter for calling this out. It's unfortunate that many businesses made the decision to work with mapbox-native and mapbox-gl-js based off the premise they could self-host and save money. It definitely feels like a bad bait and switch, and right after it gained market dominance too. Bad taste in my mouth for Mapbox products now, though clearly this is just whining because they will be successful with this change. They just get to feel like bad people for doing it, or at least I hope they do.
    - mourner 6y ago
      I wouldn't be working for Mapbox if it actually were a villainous company with an evil plan to "bait and switch" with open source, or undercut all these small competing businesses just out of spite, and it's easy to succumb to these simplistic conspiracies in the heat of the moment, but I do hope these sentiments will be short-lived.
      - anonfornoreason 6y ago
        “Oh look here’s an unattended purse, I need the money so I’ll just take it. They left it here anyway” Introducing a drastic billing change under the implied threat that your year or more of man hours performed using an underlying open source library with an understandable billing model is now potentially at risk, is shady. These billing changes make some self hosted tile users go from $0 to tens of thousands of dollars a month in usage. It’s shady, don’t lie to yourself. Also, you are not your company. I am not saying you are shady, because you are just a person who has bills and a skill and you need a salary. Don’t conflate criticisms of your employer as attacks on yourself, or you can have a hard time seeing what other people see. Tricking yourself to believe something that might not be true is one of the worst thing you can do.

kiliancs 6y ago

About Polylabel, I found this blog post more informative than the readme in the repo.