Hi all, <div><br></div><div>This is a great discussion and I think that we're all generally on the same page. Here's a little more food for thought regarding a desktop shootout:</div><div><br></div><div>Why compare to ESRI? The answer is because they own the lion's share of the market with "one-third of the global market share, and are used by nearly 80 percent of GIS users worldwide from all professions." (at least that's what Wikipedia says...).<div>
<div><br></div><div>So if this is true, then that means that 80% of GIS users are asking the question, "Why should I use desktop open source XXX instead of ESRI?" And the three main sub-questions are:</div><div>
<br></div><div>Can I open the same files?</div><div>Can I make the same maps?</div><div>Can I do the same analyses?</div><div>Can I teach the same lessons?</div><div><br></div><div>So rather than looking inward at ourselves and watching a "shoot out" between the FOSS solutions (which presumably results with someone lying dead and bleeding on the floor...), it be more productive and better for the "cause" to look <b>outward </b>and do some kind of a comparison that helps those 80% of all GIS users answer the questions above?</div>
<div><br></div><div>Something like the MS thesis about GRASS and ArcGIS that was mentioned, but web-based and updated by the various project members. I'd be happy to commit some student resources to this evaluation, particularly if some subcommittee of people could agree on what the tests would entail.</div>
<div><br></div><div>- Dan</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 2:01 AM, Miguel Montesinos <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mmontesinos@prodevelop.es">mmontesinos@prodevelop.es</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div lang="ES" link="blue" vlink="purple">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Hello,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">I think that a simple comparison to what ArcGIS does is
limitating. Several issues arises:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"><span>-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Why compare to ArcGIS 9.3 and
not Geomedia, MapInfo,…?</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"><span>-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">What about features that OS
GIS desktops provides not present in ArcGIS 9.3?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">I’d rather have a comparison among all of them under equal
conditions, for instance a feature comparison based on the maximum features all
products offer, as well as a perfomance analysis.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">For this, a common dataset of both file and service based data
should be available. In Spain there are “a lot” of public official geodata
which could be used as test datasets.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">I also like very much Paul Ramsey’s approach about what I
like and what I don’t made by people belonging to different projects.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Regards,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">---------------------------------------------</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Miguel Montesinos</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">CTO</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">PRODEVELOP, S.L.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">mmontesinos [at] prodevelop [dot] es</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"><a href="http://www.prodevelop.es/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:blue">www.prodevelop.es</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Miguel Montesinos</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<div style="border:none;border-left:solid blue 1.5pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 4.0pt">
<div>
<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">De:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">
<a href="mailto:discuss-bounces@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">discuss-bounces@lists.osgeo.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:discuss-bounces@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">discuss-bounces@lists.osgeo.org</a>] <b>En
nombre de </b>Daniel Ames<br>
<b>Enviado el:</b> lunes, 21 de diciembre de 2009 19:25<br>
<b>Para:</b> Maxim Dubinin; OSGeo Discussions<br>
<b>Asunto:</b> Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: Will there be an OSGeo Desktop shootout
atFOSS4G 2010?</span></p>
</div>
</div><div class="im">
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p>Folks, I like the structured comparison approach that Cameron outlined. Also
equally (or perhaps more useful) would be to put together a wiki page with
goals and benchmarks based on ArcGIS 9.3. And then indicate where the os
packages compare. This would provide us with the ability to answer the most
important question which is "can this do what the proprietary software
does." For example, we could post a couple of maps made in AG and then
challenge each desktop team to create and upload the same maps. Etc. I
have a line shapefile with 200 shapes. We could upload it and have everyone do
some timing to show how fast to load,pan, etc on the data. This could also
serve as a way for some of the teams to see their own deficiencies and find
critical tasks to work on (they could then update their reporting on the wiki
and indicate the version number)... - Dan</p>
</div></div>
</div>
</div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Daniel P. Ames, Ph.D. PE<br>Associate Professor, Geosciences<br>Idaho State University - Idaho Falls<br><a href="mailto:amesdani@isu.edu">amesdani@isu.edu</a><br><a href="http://geology.isu.edu">geology.isu.edu</a><br>
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