The thing that will probably never come up to snuff is the database of businesses. GNU Maps b/w the OpenStreetMap database is actually pretty good. I just looked at my home town and of all the hundreds of businesses on the main street it knew two restaurants, a gas station and a trash can. “Navigate to the nearest shoe store” isn’t a thing it can do.
That’s a fixable problem with the indexing method that someone will figure out eventually.
There’s no need to say “it will never happen” as that can discourage able developers.
People always say new ideas won’t succeed until they do then they start downplaying the success, there’s no need to say “it won’t ever happen”.
I don’t think it’s a “problem with the indexing method” I think it’s a problem of data source. People sign up and pay to have their businesses listed on Google Maps as a marketing strategy. That’s a LOT of parallel effort that won’t be there for OpenStreetMap unless it somehow becomes a major player.
That’s true but as we lay down more ground work most people would become more interested in Openstreetmap as it has more information available to the public and a free api that would save thousands in costs.
It’s difficult enough to get people to use LibreOffice Calc instead of MS Excel. It’s damn near impossible to get people to use Signal instead of WhatsApp or even fucking SMS.
In the meantime, I don’t know of a Linux phone that has calls and texts working reliably.