[Board] Binaries Packaging - A Strategic Investment

[Tim Schaub]

How would you prioritize having the foundation spend money on
packaging/distributing software compared to developing software?

I'd much rather see the foundation spend money supporting development,
but I understand the other perspective.  I'd be curious to hear how
foundation sponsors imagine their money being best put to use.  I
imagine project sponsors might have a different set of priorities.

Tim

On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 12:04 AM, Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam at pobox.com> wrote:
> 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,
> --
> ---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
> 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
>
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-- 
Tim Schaub
OpenGeo http://opengeo.org/
Expert service straight from the developers.