[Board] Re: Binaries Packaging - A Strategic Investment

[Ari Jolma]

On 03/26/2012 01:22 AM, Alex Mandel wrote:
> Don't forget the ELGIS people (Redhat et a.) and Angelos for OpenSuse.
>
> Should we start a new mailing list for packaging - packagers at osgeo.org?
> Wiki page for sure with links to each of the platforms packaging efforts.
>
> I would be happy to do a packaging sprint, of course I've been trying to
> learn packaging for Ubuntu for years now and think a couple of hours
> with an expert would really bring people up to speed with at least being
> able to keep packages up to date.

Alex, cc Board and Suchith,

I just accepted to be a member in the OSGIS 2012 program committee and 
suggested that there be a binary packaging (maybe limit to Ubuntu GIS / 
OSGeo live DVD) workhop. OSGIS is in University of Nottingham 
(Nottingham, UK) Sept 4-5. I think it would make a lot of sense to 
spread this know-how in the OSGeo academic community and Alex would be 
one of the best people to teach it to us. Packaging software, 
educational set-ups and materials, and such would make OSGeo live DVD 
based systems more usable and interesting also in academia.

So, if Alex has time and willingness and Board can direct funds for 
this, I suggest this as a good investment. In any case, Alex, please 
think about such a workshop calendar-wise.

Best regards,

Ari

>
> Anyone else going to be at FOSS4gNA?
>
> Thanks,
> Alex
>
> On 03/24/2012 02:05 PM, Pirmin Kalberer wrote:
>> Frank, Alain, Alex and others,
>>
>> I had a long discussion with Jürgen Fischer about packaging at the German
>> FOSSGIS conference this week. As you may know he's packaging QGIS for many
>> platforms inlcuding UbuntuGIS and OSGEO4W. Since QGIS has many dependencies,
>> he's also involved in packaging or updating dependent packages, escpecially
>> for OSGEO4W.
>> In my opinion, the main packagers (Alan Boudreault/Vincent Foley on Ubuntu,
>> Francesco P. Lovergine on Debian, Jürgen Fischer and Tamas Szekeres on WIndows
>> and William Kyngesburye on Mac come into my mind), should build a group and
>> improve communication.
>> I also think that funding the work of these packagers would be a very good
>> investment for the FOSSGIS community.
>> I like Alex' idea of training courses for new packagers very much. It would be
>> great, if these expert packagers would get "deputies" and mentor them. Maybe
>> thats even a better long-term approach than starting to pay packaging work.
>> So what a about a "OSGeo Packaging group"? OSGeo Live contributors could also
>> be involved and this could be a place for collecting information about
>> packaging, different platforms and events where packagers are present.
>>
>> Pirmin
>>
>> Am Donnerstag, 22. März 2012, 11.49:57 schrieb Alan Boudreault:
>>> Alex,
>>>
>>> I also like the idea of packaging sessions to bring more contributors in
>>> DebianGIS/UbuntuGIS, but I won't be in NA neither.
>>>
>>> Alan
>>>
>>> On 12-03-21 12:32 PM, Alex Mandel wrote:
>>>> I spy a GSOC project idea: Packaging automation&   a guide to train new
>>>> packagers based on the automated system.
>>>> Maybe with Frank and Alan as mentors?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Should we also consider doing a packaging session at the sprint at
>>>> Foss4gNA? Alan will you be there to teach packaging for debian/ubuntu?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Alex
>>>>
>>>> On 03/20/2012 11:35 PM, cavallini at faunalia.it wrote:
>>>>> Good point, agreed fully.
>>>>> Thanks for raising this out.
>>>>> Ready to help of necessary.
>>>>>
>>>>> ---
>>>>> http://faunalia.it/pc
>>>>> Sent from mobile, sorry for being short
>>>>>
>>>>> ----- Reply message -----
>>>>> Da: "Frank Warmerdam"<warmerdam at pobox.com>
>>>>> A: "OSGeo-Board"<board at lists.osgeo.org>
>>>>> Cc: "Alan Boudreault"<aboudreault at mapgears.com>, "Brian
>>>>> Hamlin"<maplabs at light42.com>,
>>>>> "osgeo4w-dev"<osgeo4w-dev at lists.osgeo.org>,<ubuntu at lists.osgeo.org>
>>>>> Oggetto: [osgeo4w-dev] Binaries Packaging - A Strategic Investment
>>>>> Data: mer, mar 21, 2012 07:04
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 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,
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> osgeo4w-dev mailing list
>>>>> osgeo4w-dev at lists.osgeo.org
>>>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/osgeo4w-dev
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