<div>Despite some bruised feelings and growing pains, I think Mapserver (and whatever resulting foundation) will turn out much stronger when all is said and done.</div>
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<div>Mapserver and the Mapserver project perform their core competencies very, very well. The program itself doesn't mess around or distract you with lots of bells and whistles and neither does the infrastructure around it (just look at the web site, absolutely no-nonsense).
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<div>The problem is the user community is growing beyond the developer/ GIS programmer types who have the capacity (time or otherwise) to get really involved with seeking out all the subtle twists and tricks of their web mapping application. While people have addressed these issues (
<a href="http://Maptools.org">Maptools.org</a>), there has been little of the consistant coorperate-style delivery that people have come to expect from higher profile OSS projects.</div>
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<div>The arrival of Autodesk on the scene might be just the kick-in-the-pants the community needs to step up to the next level.</div>