[Qgis-psc] QGIS for Mac OS packaging and infrastructure

[Saber Razmjooei]

Dear PSC,

It the past couple of months we have put together a very basic
infrastructure to automatically generate Mac OS packages as a proof of
concept and also as a part of a contract with a client.

The packaging now works as expected and we will support it for another
year. We are aware of the users’ complaints and feedback in regards to Mac
OS packages in the past, despite the hard efforts of the QGIS community.
Specifically, William who has been undertaking this difficult task. We are
also aware of other companies who offer QGIS Mac packages (download links
are available after registration).

In addition to the lack of any documentation on the packaging process, the
packages are not signed by QGIS (or OSGeo), which is not very welcome in
large organisations. There have been several emails in the past about this
topic but has lead to nowhere.

Another shortcoming of the current packaging is the lack of master
(nightly) builds for Mac users. This has been causing a lot of negative
reactions from the users after each release (as they are not able to test
the features before the release).

We would like to hand-over our QGIS Mac OS packaging to QGIS.org. This will
come with a bit of caveats:

1- The current scripts are not perfect but it is open source and publicly
available. We will need to polish it. There will be some additional work to
remove a blocker to support older Mac OSes. It is likely to be between
5k-8k euro.

2- The server cost (~600 USD/year/server) and Apple Developers certificate
cost (99 USD/year) will be probably more significant compared to other
OSes. We can start with one server and have the second one if needed. I am
sure there are organisations and users who will be interested in
funding/sponsoring QGIS with more positive experience for their platform.

3- We are happy to help and support the Mac OS packaging for the next
couple of years for a smooth integration with the rest of QGIS packages.
This will include obtaining QGIS (or OSGeo) Apple developer certificate.
Our current packages are signed with Lutra certificate. But the process is
easy and documented in our packaging process.

4- QGIS 2.18 is not supported.

5- QGIS nightly is also available as a part of our packaging, which allows
users to better test QGIS master before the release.

Looking forward to hearing your feedback.

Regards

Saber


-- 
Saber Razmjooei
www.lutraconsulting.co.uk
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-psc/attachments/20181203/9cebc234/attachment.html>