[Board] Binaries Packaging - A Strategic Investment

[Frank Warmerdam]

Folks,

I've mentioned this before, and I don't have anything surprising to add now.
I just wanted to bump this topic.

I believe that producing good quality integrated distributions of OSGeo
binary software for a major user platforms is strategically important for
OSGeo and would be worth an investment of moderate amounts of money to
promote.

For me two packaging efforts stick out, though I might be biased.

1) OSGeo4W - I think the Windows environment is (still?) very important and
OSGeo4W is a credible community effort to satisfy it that could benefit
from more involvement, polish and a broader package set.

2) Debian/Ubuntu/LiveDVD - I believe that Ubuntu is today the dominant
desktop/server linux system and that the packaging efforts of the DebianGIS,
UbuntuGIS and LiveDVD groups build on one another and provide high impact.

If board members or community members see high impact and reasonably
priced opportunities to extend these efforts with OSGeo money I hope
they will come forward with them.  I'd also like to see us do more on the
OSGeo web site, with case studies, etc to promote these package suites
in a manner appropriate to their level of readiness.

I also think the MacOS environment is very important but I'm not entirely
clear on the best way of addressing that.  Good ideas on this aspect are
also welcome.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://home.gdal.org/warmerda
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Software Developer