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

Wed Sep 25 06:54:11 PDT 2013

FYI I talked with Alan yesterday about setting up a PSC for UbuntuGIS to 
increase this project's bus number.

Let's see what OSGeo4W does, and UbuntuGIS will likely adopt a similar 
approach.

I agree with those who wrote that we should aim to share as much as 
possible between the various distros, for instance we should aim to 
reuse/share the getting started docs produced by OSGeo-Live.

That being said I am not convinced that a single PSC overseeing all 
binary distros could be very efficient. OSGeo4W, UbuntuGIS, OSGeo-Live, 
etc, all have some commonalities, but also some big differences in the 
end product due to the nature of the platform that they target. Separate 
PSCs/teams focused on each platform seem more natural to me, even if 
some devs end up participating on multiple teams, but I'd be happy to be 
proven wrong of course.

Daniel

On 13-09-25 9:43 AM, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I have initiated an RFC for a project management committee for
> OSGeo4W.  I'd encourage everyone interested in participating to joint
> the osgeo4w-dev mailing list and to continue detailed discussion
> there.
>
>   http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/osgeo4w-dev
>
> I think this list (osgeo-discuss) is a great place to discuss linkages
> between different packaging efforts.
>
> Best regards,
> Frank
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 2:06 AM, Jo Cook <jocook at astuntechnology.com> wrote:
>> 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
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Discuss mailing list
>>> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jo Cook
>> Astun Technology Ltd, The Coach House, 17 West Street, Epsom, Surrey, KT18
>> 7RL, UK
>> t:+44 7930 524 155
>> iShare - Data integration and publishing platform
>>
>> *****************************************
>>
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>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Discuss mailing list
>> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
>

-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/
Provider of Professional MapServer Support since 2000