[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: Will there be an OSGeo Desktop shootout atFOSS4G 2010?

[Stefan Steiniger]

Hei all,

thanks for Cameron on keeping me in the loop, and to Markus for 
remembering :)  I am now subscribed to this list.

I think Pauls idea sounds interesting - because this whole comparison 
thing is
a) quite cumbersome when we have 10 desktop GIS (+ X), and
b) neither really worth because desktop GIS are used for a multitude of 
tasks, while web map Servers or databases aren't that much - right?

So as Paul is quoted on the osgeo wiki: one needs to set up use cases 
first (just wrote that today in a new article too, which contains a 
section on selecting free GIS software). And I also discovered that just 
most of the projects have a different focus during my evaluation. Which 
of course does not mean that such thing should not be presented - but it 
must be focussed in some way or the other to have a benefit. And as a 
side note, I am not sure if measuring processing times makes sense 
either, as GIS analysis feature sets are so different.

However, I am in for testing with OpenJUMP.

Two more notes:
- my comparison tables are now already 2 years old now (from 2007), i.e. 
need some update (but the last pub in Ecological Informatics took into 
account newer developments too, but is superficial and focused towards 
the "average" GIS users).
- I gave a talk about this at OGRS:
http://www.ogrs2009.org/doku.php?id=keynotes
pdf can be downloaded from there.

cheers from Germany right now (Xmas)
stefan

PS: I know also of this comparison by T. Hengl et al. on Grass vs. SAGA 
for Geomorphologic Analysis
http://www.igc.usp.br/pessoais/guano/downloads/Hengl_etal_2009_gmorph.pdf


Paul Ramsey schrieb:
> Interested in a different approach that is lower impact, but still
> interesting and entertaining? Have developers review a "competing"
> project and then present their findings, in the form of "What I love
> about ___, what I hate about____".
> 
> Jody Garnett presents "What I love about QGIS, what I hate about QGIS."
> Jorge Sanz presents "What I love about uDig, what I hate about uDig."
> Tim Sutton presents "What I love about gvSIG, what I hate about gvSIG."
> 
> Not only do you get an unvarnished view, but you can have shorter
> presentations with a discussion segment at the end of each one.
> 
> Works for almost any application category too.
>