[OSGeo-Discuss] Is the integration of FOSS4G and proprietary software good for FOSS4G?

[Miguel Montesinos]

Hello,

I throw out a question some people are debating in Spain [1 (only
Spanish)]. Sextante has the intention (or at least have thought about
it) of building bindings so that it can be used from proprietary
applications, like ArcGIS.

1) Do you think that it may avoid proprietary users to migrate to open
solutions, as they can benefit of open-source libraries under their
proprietary software? Besides, this give arguments to proprietary
manufacturers because of the weakness of open-source software needing to
run on top of proprietary ones, or to sell out their compatibility with
FOSS4G.

2) Do you think that it may lead proprietary users to try out and
migrate to open source solutions due to the good impression they can
have after using FOSS4G? Besides, this could generate incomes to improve
FOSS4G developments, and offer alternatives to proprietary extensions,
drivers, ...

What is your oppinion about this tricky question?

Best,

[1] http://sextantegis.blogspot.com/ 

---------------------------------------------
Miguel Montesinos
CTO
PRODEVELOP, S.L.
mmontesinos [at] prodevelop [dot] es
www.prodevelop.es