[OSGeo-Discuss] [Board] RE : Re: OSGEO4W future

[Jo Cook]

The newest version of Portable GIS doesn't require quite so many admin
privileges, but I've also slimmed it down dramatically so it fits on a
smaller USB stick, so it contains a lot less software (no gvsig, no mysql
etc). It is used extensively for training courses in the UK, without too
many problems, and the new version should be better again as I have a
windows 8 VM to test on at last.

I'd like to bring Portable GIS in line with OSGeo4W and OSGeo Live- I've
spoken to both Alex and Cameron about this in the past- but I have some
work to do before that's possible- namely around documenting exactly which
files I change, and also the build process. It's all in a local mercurial
repository at the moment, but I'd really like to get it online. To be
honest, my big concern is that I don't always have time to focus on things
outside of my core work (maybe that will change post FOSS4G) and I can't
guarantee being able to pitch in at release time, or even respond to issues
in a timely manner. That's the main reason why I've kept it as a little pet
project- so I'm not letting anyone else down!

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack this discussion!

I think it makes sense to come up with an over-arching
project/committee/whatever that covers both OSGeo4W and OSGeo-Live, and
maybe PortableGIS at some point, rather than separate projects. It's always
better to share work rather than replicate it. Does anyone have any
objections to that idea? Personally, I'd then sketch out the workflows for
each, and figure out what make-up of committee would be required to oversee
that and go through incubation.

Jo


On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 2:04 AM, Alex Mandel <tech_dev at wildintellect.com>wrote:

> On 09/24/2013 12:50 AM, Johan Van de Wauw wrote:
> > On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 2:08 AM, Angelos Tzotsos <gcpp.kalxas at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Hi Daniel,
> >>
> >> I am in favor of both OSGeoLive and OSGeo4W going through a few weeks
> >> incubation process.
> >>
> >> Best,
> >> Angelos
> >>
> > My own impression is that if we want to reach out to non-geek GIS
> > users the ideal way would be a system like portable GIS with the great
> > documentation of the live dvd, ie run and test the programs without
> > needing to be admin or having to install different programs.
>
> I've researched this problem, talked with Jo (Current author of
> PortableGIS http://www.archaeogeek.com/portable-gis.html)
>
> There is almost no way to make this work without Admin priveleges on a
> windows machine. Some individual apps can be made to work by extensively
> modifying how they look for libs but many require things like a jvm to
> run on top of, or a mix of system an local libs (e.g. Visual C++ is
> required for many OSGeo4W apps and requires an install, that's actually
> about the only part that has to be installed vs just in the OSGeo4w
> folder).
>
> This is actually why I settled on helping create OSGeo Live bootable
> products and virtual machines. Of course this isn't perfect either as
> figuring out how to boot a disk or usb seems beyond some users, and the
> virtual machine still hits needing admin to install virtualization
> software.
>
> I also agree there's no reason many of the documentation efforts can't
> be shared.
>
> Thanks,
> Alex
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