[OSGeo-Discuss] Proprietary GIS on our OSGeo website

[María Arias de Reyna]

>> On 20 September 2017 at 02:41, Helmut Kudrnovsky <hellik at web.de> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear OSGeo community
>>>
>>> I want to bring you a discussion on a github ticket about linking to
>>> "similar proprietary products" [1] to your attention.
>>>
>>> My comment there:
>>>
>>> "I support and concur with Venka that the item "Similar Proprietary
>>> Products" should be removed. There isn't only one proprietary GIS software
>>> out there, there are several others. IMHO such comparisons may be part of
>>> e.g. a reviewed scientific paper/elaboration, where our OSGeo projects - if
>>> they want to - may link to. I see no added value for OSGeo to serve such
>>> links. As already elsewhere mentioned by me, reciprocity is the key if such
>>> items are listed, but I can't see this happen. "
>>>
>>> I'm pretty much convinced that more effort to help our OSGeo projects
>>> improving on every level (e.g. documentation, reach out, testing, etc) is
>>> the key rather than linking to proprietary software. One of such
>>> opportunities may be the upcoming Google Code In (GCI) 2017 e.g. to produce
>>> nice screenshots for documentation, produce some fancy videos etc. based on
>>> tiny little tasks for students aged 13 to 17. A good invest in the young who
>>> will be our OSGeo's future.
>>>
>>> Kind regards
>>> Helmut
>>> OSGeo charter member
>>>
>>> [1] https://github.com/OSGeo/osgeo/issues/100
>>> [2] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2017-September/036217.html
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Discuss mailing list
>>> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>


Hi,

On my opinion, it makes sense to show relation between propietary and
free and open software. Just because we want to people to migrate to
free and open source software, so it is good if they can search for
the software they are currently using to know what software will they
use. It makes sense, it makes life easier on migrations.

Said this, I prefer the "Migrate from" label much better. And sure, no
link to the product, just the name. Why would we need a link? If they
don't know what that software is, the information is useless to them.
If they already know what that software is, the information is
redundant. So having a name is fine, having a link is nonsense.

Is "Migrate from" label aggresive? Not at all. We are OsGeo, we are
promoting FLOSS. Promoting FLOSS means we are encouraging people to
move from propietary to open. That is our philosophy, that is our
motto. If propietary software feels bad because we follow our goals...
well, then maybe they should stop promoting their own software too
because that makes me feel bad.

Regards,
María.