[OSGeo-Discuss] RE: Comparison between Proprietary and OS

Randy George rkgeorge at cadmaps.com
Sat Apr 26 06:47:14 PDT 2008


Hi,

	This brings to mind an additional point. Even though OS GIS tends to
be a patchwork of projects that demand a good deal of experience from its
users, it also gives you infinite extensibility. 

	From a business perspective, this affords a proficient user of OS
the ability to exploit automated workflow processes. Many use cases involve
repetitive drudge work that can be automated if you have access to the code
and/or knowledge of scripting. This is often possible with commercial
products too, but OS usually has more hooks to feed a workflow and you can
resort to the code if required.

	Since we are in the internet era, workflows tend to get pushed
further out into the cloud which is why WPS has a lot of promise and means
that the push button=> result will be mandatory. The public use of GIS
workflow demands simplicity, possibly over simplicity. 

randy

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Andre Grobler
Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2008 5:39 AM
To: discuss at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] RE: Comparison between Proprietary and OS

I'm very new at OS, have worked 10 years on AV3.x and a little Idrisi, but
only from a vegetation point of view, so we're talking basic end-user
digitizer mapper (and georef images), bit of topographical modeling and
extracting underlying information. I wanted to do OS when starting my own
company, but time constraints had me take a loan to get Windows Office and
ArcView, just because I knew what I would get, and be able to get up and
running on it within a week. I now realize most of the things I need to do
in day to day, I could do in OS Q-GIS albeit with a little less sleekness.
But I could not risk letting work slide (or causing clients, who use ESRI,
hassles) to get up and running in Q-GIS, GRASS and possibly OSSIM.

So the hurdles for me to OS were "acceptance" specifically for the following
reasons:
Free and easy access and training of ESRI at varsity. Autocad did the same
and look where that got them.
Linux, just mentioning command lines has me a little nervous. (I know this
is changing, but the field calculator is enough programming for me, thanks)

I'm not suggesting anybody is obliged to fix these things, I mean there's no
such thing as a free lunch. I'm just saying what OS inherently is, is
probably going to keep it out of the mainstream (non-programming) end-users
easy reach.

So in short I am doing what somebody already suggested, get ESRI for day to
day soft landing and learn OS GRASS and OSSIM meanwhile for real work;-)
Hopefully in a while I'll wonder what the fuss was about... and possibly
contribute, if only to the dummies FAQ section.

André Grobler

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of
discuss-request at lists.osgeo.org
Sent: 26 April 2008 10:49 AM
To: discuss at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: [!! SPAM] Discuss Digest, Vol 16, Issue 28

Send Discuss mailing list submissions to
	discuss at lists.osgeo.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
	http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
	discuss-request at lists.osgeo.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
	discuss-owner at lists.osgeo.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Discuss digest..."


Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Can I do the same GIS tasks with OS (as with	ESRI)?
      (RAVI KUMAR)
   2. Re: Can I do the same GIS tasks with OS (as with	ESRI)?
      (Cameron Shorter)
   3. Re: Can I do the same GIS tasks with OS (as with	ESRI)?
      (Wolf Bergenheim)
   4. Re: Can I do the same GIS tasks with OS (as with	ESRI)?
      (RAVI KUMAR)
   5. Re: Can I do the same GIS tasks with OS (as with	ESRI)?
      (Malte Halbey-Martin)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:31:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: RAVI KUMAR <ravivundavalli at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Can I do the same GIS tasks with OS (as
	with	ESRI)?
To: OSGeo Discussions <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
Message-ID: <594372.75488.qm at web65601.mail.ac4.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi,
this is the kind of question I face when in my lectures evangelising OS GIS.
ArcGIS has many tools, though some prefer to call it a deluge of tools,
which almost distance the user from understanding the concept of GIS.

Auto Complete Polygon: 
In Qgis which is a very userfriendly OS GIS you have 'Cut polygon', do try
and find the difference.

Polygonising from lines:
Open JUMP has one of the most userfriendly approaches.
Create lines and polygonise in OpenJUMP and the software automatically 
creates a folder for Dangles (un-wanted line pieces)

The query is more for Vector GIS, I suppose.

GRASS GIS:
It has so many features for Image analysis and Raster GIS, the commercial
GIS need a barge pole to even touch it. The vector Part of GRASS is robust
too.

Ravi Kumar


Markus Neteler <neteler at osgeo.org> wrote: On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 11:55 PM,
George R. C. Silva
 wrote:
...
>  One thing GIS OS software could have are better editing tools. I do miss
> them alot, and the one is ArcGIS are unbeatable (i dont know any O.S.
> software that have 'autocomplete polygon', tons of snapping options, etc -
> btw, if you do, let me know).
>
>  FOSS is great, but it lacks (IMHO) better editing options.

We are working on that:
 http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/WxPython-based_GUI_for_GRASS#Digitizer

Screenshots:
 http://grass.osgeo.org/screenshots/gui.php
 -> wxPython (new GUI)

You can try out the prototype in GRASS 6.3.0 (released yesterday):
 http://grass.osgeo.org/announces/announce_grass630.html

Get MacOSX, Linux and now even native MS-Windows binaries with *installer*
at
 http://grass.osgeo.org/download/index.php#g63x

Enjoy
Markus
_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss


       
---------------------------------
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it
now.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20080425/b25f50f1/attac
hment-0001.html

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:44:10 +1000
From: Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Can I do the same GIS tasks with OS (as
	with	ESRI)?
To: OSGeo Discussions <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
Message-ID: <4812C12A.8050800 at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Ravi,
What us Open Source evangelists are missing is an honest comparison 
between ESRI desktop applications and Open Source equivalents.

What is it about ArcView and ArcGIS that people really like, listed 
feature by feature in a table.
Then identify whether Open Source covers it and how.
Very important is to address usability. How quickly can an Arc* user 
migrate to Open Source?
My skill set is lacking here as I don't have much experience in either 
ESRI or the Open Source desktop tools. It seems like you have experience 
with both which puts you in a unique position.

Is this something you, or one of your students would like to investigate 
further? Maybe build a table similar to this one:
http://www.spatialserver.net/osgis/Desktopgis_overview.htm

RAVI KUMAR wrote:
> Hi,
> this is the kind of question I face when in my lectures evangelising 
> OS GIS.
> ArcGIS has many tools, though some prefer to call it a deluge of 
> tools, which almost distance the user from understanding the concept 
> of GIS.
>
> Auto Complete Polygon:
> In Qgis which is a very userfriendly OS GIS you have 'Cut polygon', do 
> try and find the difference.
>
> Polygonising from lines:
> Open JUMP has one of the most userfriendly approaches.
> Create lines and polygonise in OpenJUMP and the software automatically
> creates a folder for Dangles (un-wanted line pieces)
>
> The query is more for Vector GIS, I suppose.
>
> GRASS GIS:
> It has so many features for Image analysis and Raster GIS, the 
> commercial GIS need a barge pole to even touch it. The vector Part of 
> GRASS is robust too.
>
> Ravi Kumar
>
>
> */Markus Neteler <neteler at osgeo.org>/* wrote:
>
>     On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 11:55 PM, George R. C. Silva
>     wrote:
>     ...
>     > One thing GIS OS software could have are better editing tools. I
>     do miss
>     > them alot, and the one is ArcGIS are unbeatable (i dont know any
>     O.S.
>     > software that have 'autocomplete polygon', tons of snapping
>     options, etc -
>     > btw, if you do, let me know).
>     >
>     > FOSS is great, but it lacks (IMHO) better editing options.
>
>     We are working on that:
>     http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/WxPython-based_GUI_for_GRASS#Digitizer
>
>     Screenshots:
>     http://grass.osgeo.org/screenshots/gui.php
>     -> wxPython (new GUI)
>
>     You can try out the prototype in GRASS 6.3.0 (released yesterday):
>     http://grass.osgeo.org/announces/announce_grass630.html
>
>     Get MacOSX, Linux and now even native MS-Windows binaries with
>     *installer* at
>     http://grass.osgeo.org/download/index.php#g63x
>
>     Enjoy
>     Markus
>     _______________________________________________
>     Discuss mailing list
>     Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
>     http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try 
> it now. 
>
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51733/*http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8
HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ%20> 
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>   


-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Systems Architect
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Commercial Support for Geospatial Open Source Solutions
http://www.lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts.html



------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:19:28 +0300
From: Wolf Bergenheim <wolf+grass at bergenheim.net>
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Can I do the same GIS tasks with OS (as
	with	ESRI)?
To: OSGeo Discussions <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
Message-ID: <4812C970.2040808 at bergenheim.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed

On 26.04.2008 08:44, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> Ravi,
> What us Open Source evangelists are missing is an honest comparison 
> between ESRI desktop applications and Open Source equivalents.
> 

This has been done somewhat. You might find it interesting reading.

--Wolf

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [GRASS-user] [Fwd: [OSGeo-Discuss] Can I do the same GIS 
Tasks with OS (as with ESRI)?]
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:13:49 +0200
From: Markus Metz
To: grass-user at lists.osgeo.org

Todd Buchanan compared GRASS and ArcGIS in his master thesis (Geoscience
/ GIS):

Title: Thesis b

_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss




More information about the Discuss mailing list