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

[Tim Sutton]

His Saber

> On 03 Dec 2018, at 14:37, Saber Razmjooei <saber.razmjooei at lutraconsulting.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> 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.
> 

It is really great what you have done - yay! WRT the certificates, I think OSGEO already has a certificate, the hard thing II guess is to track it down and get them to share it with you so you can sign with it.

I wonder gif the packages can be built on travis which seems to offer a macOS build environment too:

https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/reference/osx/

I’m expecting negative comments here saying we should not spend QGIS money on licenses and servers for macOS but hopefully folks can step back a bit and see that this is a minimal investment to make a really first class experience for macOS users. I think we should also be able to obtain the running costs for macOS through targeted donations - watching the donations notifications, it seems that quite a few already earmarked funds towards macOS….

Regards

Tim




> Looking forward to hearing your feedback.
> 
> Regards
> Saber
> 
> 
> -- 
> Saber Razmjooei
> www.lutraconsulting.co.uk <http://www.lutraconsulting.co.uk/>
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Qgis-psc mailing list
> Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc

—








Tim Sutton

Co-founder: Kartoza
Ex Project chair: QGIS.org

Visit http://kartoza.com <http://kartoza.com/> to find out about open source:

Desktop GIS programming services
Geospatial web development
GIS Training
Consulting Services

Skype: timlinux 
IRC: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-psc/attachments/20181203/11891f65/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: KartozaNewLogoThumbnail.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 6122 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-psc/attachments/20181203/11891f65/attachment.jpg>