[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: Will there be an OSGeo Desktop shootout at FOSS4G 2010?

[Cameron Shorter]

Andrea,
That looks like an excellent basis to start from.

Were the results of the desktop comparison written up somewhere?

While a feature comparison is valuable, the end user is also interested 
is other metrics which are harder to collect.

"How much time is required to do a task? How long does it take to load a 
large file, move the file, pan the file, zoom in etc"

"How easy is it for a new user to use this application? How much 
training is required to get them up to speed."

"How easy is it to install and configure the application?"

If we have a community of developers willing to build up such a 
comparison, I have a client whom I could ask for use cases to address.

Cameron Shorter wrote:
> Delegates who voted for the FOSS4G 2009 presentations ranked the OSGeo 
> comparison projects very highly, which is something I suggest hopeful 
> FOSS4G 2010 presenters take note of, because competition for speaking 
> slots will be fierce.
>
> At FOSS4G 2009, 183 quality presentations were submitted, and there 
> was only 85 speaking slots. In 2010 it is likely to be much harder, as 
> there is expected to be 2 to 3 times more delegates and many more 
> hopeful presenters.
>
> In 2009 the community ranked potential presentations, and some of the 
> highest ranked presentations targeted the comparison of popular 
> packages. Unfortunately, there were only a few of these types of 
> presentations.
>
> The presentations were:
>
> * Ranked 2: The WMS Performance Shootout
> * Ranked 8: PostGIS and Oracle Spatial
> * Ranked 9: There is no alternative to Openlayers...? (discussing 
> OpenLayers vs other AJAX clients)
>
> The moral to the story is that delegates want to see how different 
> projects compare, and to date we have had a shortage of such 
> presentations (partly because they are a lot of work to set up).
>
> However, I strongly suggest that projects start teaming together to 
> put together such presentations for 2010.
>
> In particular, I'd love to see comparisons between:
> * Geospatial Desktop applications
> * Geospatial Browser based applications
> * Geospatial Servers (WMS, WFS, Tiled Services at the very least)
>
> The comparisons could cover some or all of:
> * performance
> * robustness
> * features
> * ease of setup or use
>
> The tests should not be restricted to Open Source, but be open to 
> proprietary vendors too. (ESRI and ERDAS were invited to participate 
> in the 2009 WMS shootout, and it seems likely they will participate in 
> 2010).
>
> So who wants to participate?
>


-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Systems Architect
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

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