I would agree with Paul. The biggest hole in the FOSS stack is in easy, high quality printed map production. This is the one task where the Arc tools beat anything I have seen in FOSS GIS hands down.<br><br>David<br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 3:36 PM, Paul Ramsey <<a href="mailto:pramsey@cleverelephant.ca">pramsey@cleverelephant.ca</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I'd buck up for a copy of ArcView (much cheaper than ArcGIS), and use<br>
GRASS / PostGIS / etc tools for things like analysis. You can use<br>
ArcView to generate the paper and do some quick low-end analytics and<br>
the other tools for more involved stuff.<br>
<br>
My general synopsis: for server-side, for scriptability, for<br>
automation, for web-based, open source wins for most use cases, given<br>
a technically savvy user; for ad hoc, for cartographic production, for<br>
a user who is used to a point-n-click experience end to end,<br>
proprietary still wins.<br>
<br>
This equation hasn't changed much in the 10 years I've been running<br>
it. The goal posts have moved, open source is better at adhoc now than<br>
before, but still not at the level of ESRI, and ESRI is better at the<br>
server stuff now, but still not at the level of open source.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
P.<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>
On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 12:41 PM, Jennifer Horsman <<a href="mailto:jen@jencarta.com">jen@jencarta.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> The thread that was started today with the subject "Your open source career"<br>
> got me thinking about asking a question that has been rolling around in my<br>
> head. This is pointed at those people who have experience with ESRI products<br>
> as well as OS GIS products.<br>
><br>
> I have been a long-time user of ESRI products, but I want to start my own<br>
> contract business and will not be able to afford the license for<br>
> ArcGIS/ArcInfo. So I recently set up a Linux box with GRASS installed, but<br>
> it has been over 10 years since I have used GRASS (it has probably changed<br>
> since then too!)<br>
><br>
> Does GRASS have the same analysis and display capabilities as ArcGIS? I<br>
> know this is a very general question, so perhaps another question would be<br>
> where does GRASS fall short and where does it excel in comparison to the<br>
> ESRI products?<br>
><br>
> Thanks,<br>
> Jennifer<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>************************************<br>David William Bitner