wowbagger's Journal: Expunged....

Expunge Ex*punge",
      1. To blot out, as with pen; to rub out; to efface designedly; to obliterate; to strike out wholly; as, to expunge words, lines, or sentences.

Back in this Slashdot story, I bemoaned the absence of good trip planning software for Linux. At that time, Delorme had their packages available for both Window and Macintosh, but not Linux. I asked people to bring pressure to bear upon Delorme. Unfortunately, the sum total result of the Slashdot story was "... full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

OK, so last weekend Bittmann and I were in the local ChompUSA. We were discussing laptops - his is getting a little sick, mine is just plain ancient, and we were both commenting that a Mac laptop running OS X would not be too bad for what we do. Ambling over to the Mac section of the store, Bittmann started looking for Delorme's MapNGo package for Mac.

404 - Program not found.

OK, perhaps ChompUSA simply doesn't carry MapNGo for Mac. Or perhaps they are out. So, we find a computer with a 'Net connection, fire up a browser, and off to www.delorme.com we go.

There is now no mention of Mac version of their programs anywhere on the site.

Anywhere.

We use Delorme's search. We Google. Nothing.

Oh, there are plenty of places on the net selling the older Mac versions of the Delorme packages. But there is not ONE reference on Delorme's site to software that doesn't run on Windows or Palm.

Macintosh has been expunged from the Delorme site. It is an un-platform. Insofar as Delorme's web presense is concerned, they do not now nor have they ever supported Macintosh. Shades of Orwell.

Now, I can certainly understand a company deciding to drop an unprofitable product line. I can certainly understand a company targeting its finite resources to a higher yield product over a profitable, but lower yield product.

But to refuse to admit that you ever made something, to refuse to provide at least minimal support, to refuse to even admit in public "hey, we are moving out of this market, sorry, bu-bye!" - that seems just a bit questionable to me.

Why did Delorme do this? Was it just a business decision? Has the gradual adoption by Delorme of the latest greatest Microsoft Agent Technology (guaranteed to drag the fastest computer down to its knees with animated "helper" wizards) made supporting other platforms infeasible?

Perhaps this will stimulate some other business to move into the niche abandoned by Delorme, and perhaps that company will also support Linux and *BSD (but not SCO!).

Unfortunately, I doubt there will be a meaningful Free Software solution to this problem, for this is one area in which Free Software is weak.

Free Software is great at creating programs that are in many ways similar to the stereotypical geek - programs that sit quietly in the background, doing their jobs, and interact minimally (and painfully) with users - servers, tools, and so on.

Programs that have to interact with users (GUIs, user apps, etc.) are a bit more difficult - you teach the geek to bath, groom, and speak clearly, to continue the metaphor.

But in both of the above cases, the programmer(s) creating the program can independantly check it - you can check your HTTP server against the RFCs, you can make sure your work processor correctly wraps paragraphs, and so on.

But trip planning is different. Suppose I won the lottery, and didn't have to work for a living. So I can set forth to write a trip planning program. Suppose for the moment I write the most perfect program there is - it can find the optimal route in seconds, schedule the trip, compute fuel use, and even book tickets at the attractions along the way. All that is for NAUGHT if I don't have a database of roads, attractions, hotels, and so on. And that database is not something a lone geek can create.

Yes, I know there are some databases out there that have SOME of that data, but the detailed databases needed to make good planning software work just aren't freely available. And I see no real way you COULD apply the Bazaar model of development to creating them. What would you do, create a Slash site for entering hotels, attractions, and roads? Thanks, but I really don't want to take Frost Pist road to Goatse, AL to see the Portman Museum of Grits. How do you filter the crap - because the only thing worse than no data is WRONG DATA!

Mac Attack

[IAmRenegadeX]

Delorme probably just wasn't selling enough Mac map software to merit developing it and supporting it, anymore. It sucks for Mac users, but, they have to survive...

As for "free" alternatives, you never try MapQuest? ;) (I'm sure you have -- it's just that there are free alternatives like this -- although they don't work without a 'net connection.)

You can even get maps and trips made for you by AAA. People seem to forget that they get this service with the "help with a tow" service they bought...

Hey

open source alternatives

[rifter]

There are indeed government maps available to anyone. I do not know about the license for use. Courts have found that facts are not copyrightable. Therefore addresses of attractions can be found/confirmed through other means and then put into your software. The maps, however, are the most problematic since they are definitely copyrighted...