Juno Computers begins work on a Qt-based OpenStreetMap navigation app

Juno Computers has published Car Navigation on GitLab, a navigation application designed for Linux systems. The repository is hosted under the junocomp account, which is linked to the company’s official website.

Juno Computers is a Linux computer company based in London, UK. All of its machines are supplied with Ubuntu pre-installed. The company presents its products as an alternative to computers running Windows or macOS.

Juno also develops its own application called Kronos, which simplifies the installation of popular commercial software such as Google Chrome, Dropbox, Spotify, and Skype. Its computers also include LibreOffice.

The company’s product range includes Jupiter laptops and Olympia mini PCs. Juno Computers also emphasizes the availability of practical ports such as Ethernet, USB, and SD card readers, which are increasingly being removed from modern laptops.

Navigation based on Qt and OpenStreetMap

Car Navigation is being developed with Qt 6, Qt Quick, and QMapLibre. The project also uses OpenStreetMap data and services related to place search and route planning, including Photon, Nominatim, OSRM, and Valhalla.

According to the project documentation, the application uses Qt Positioning for GPS location support and QMapLibre for map rendering. Optional voice guidance based on Piper TTS is also included.

The application can store map cache, OpenStreetMap-related data, search history, and some information associated with searched places locally.

Installation requires manual compilation

Car Navigation does not currently have a ready-to-install release. The project must be compiled manually with CMake.

The documentation states that the application has been tested on Debian Forky/Sid with Qt 6.10.2. Before compiling the application, users must prepare a specific version of QMapLibre and apply the patches included in the repository.

These patches add or extend support for GeoJSON layers, runtime map style changes, navigation camera settings, and tile cache configuration.

No actual screenshots are available

The repository does not currently include a screenshot gallery or full images of the application interface. The README also lacks a detailed overview of the interface and instructions for using the program.

The image accompanying this article is therefore only a conceptual visualization. It does not show the actual Car Navigation interface.

The project is still at an early stage and is currently aimed mainly at users who are able to compile the application and its dependencies themselves.

https://gitlab.com/junocomp/car-navigation