[geomoose-psc] Fwd: [Live-demo] Reducing scope of OSGeo-Live for next 11.0 release

Mon Apr 17 15:36:51 PDT 2017

I have been quietly following this discussion on the OSGeo-Live list.  This
is my take from the perspective of the one who does most of the work
maintaining GeoMoose on OSGeo-Live.

Well for starters the OpenHub page is complete BS.  I am not sure what, if
anything can be done about it.

It doesn't see the full history (back to the Sourceforge/OpenMNND days),
nor does it see the most recent 3.x work.  It is seriously confused about
the contributors list.  It is wrong about the dominant language (it says
PHP instead of JS).  I am not sure how it is or isn't dealing with
submodules and if it is or isn't counting OpenLayers and dojo as part of
GeoMoose.  I suspect most of this is due to how our repositories have
evolved over time.  I also flat out refuse to support anything that hampers
our project's ability to maintain sutiable workflows for us just to get
better stats on OpenHub.

We could use to update the screenshots in the quickstart and overview.  I
haven't been doing that as it is a bit of a PITA to reproduce them and the
look hasn't significantly changed lately.

I don't know if we fall under reduced engagement or not.  I do actively
test GeoMoose on the alphas and betas when they are announced, but I am not
sure anyone knows I do so.  Second, frankly, things have generally just
worked so there isn't much to do/say except occasionally bump a version
number in the installer and the docs.

I do have to say that since the OSGeo Live project reorganized (about the
time they switched to github), it has been significantly more difficult for
me to maintain GeoMoose on Live.  One issue is I haven't been able to
figure out how to build from scratch anymore (last I looked I couldn't find
working, up to date instructions) so I end up having to do any updates
semi-blind (I can re-run the GeoMoode installer on a release but that isn't
necessarily the same as testing installing from scratch), so I have to make
a pull request and wait for it to get accepted then download the next
"nightly" and associated log to see what happened.  As these are all ~4GB
this takes awhile.  (It would be really nice if there was a sane way to
pull down the diff between nightlies or similar, but it would be nicer if
building was easy.)

I also know there has been a big push to move OSGeo Live installers
entirely to debian packages.  After giving it a lot of thought and after
many discussions with others, my personal take is this would have negative
consequences for GeoMoose as it would effectively mean packaging the demo.
The problem with this is this isn't compatible with how people use/install
GeoMoose in practice. They start with the demo and then customize the
data/config and sometimes more. Having it as a deb would make updating
nearly impossible, and would make running multiple instances needlessly
complex.  In contrast, the current install_geomoose.sh script included on
Live is a working example of how someone could get started installing
GeoMoose on their machine.  I feel this is much more in line with the goals
of OSGeo Live of introducing people to and helping people get started with
FOSS4G.

BTW, This is essentially the same set of problems with the debian packaging
of other web apps/frameworks that expect heavy customization (e.g.
WordPress). Sure it installs, but it works a lot better to pull down the
tarball and install outside of dpkg.  This may be an application design
issue due to being somewhere between a finished application and a
library/framework.  GeoMoose 3.x might relieve this some by explicitly
separating the core library from the (demo) applications, but that remains
to be seen.

Generally, I'd say I put in 4-8 hours per OSGeo Live release between
updating to the most recent stable GeoMoose, then downloading and testing
alphas and betas.  That is about all the time I am able to donate to the
cause.

On Apr 17, 2017 16:47, "Basques, Bob (CI-StPaul)" <
bob.basques at ci.stpaul.mn.us> wrote:

All,

Just passing som info on about OSGeo Live project (potential changes).

Some info about the OSGeo-Live project.  There are also some
milestone/cut-off dates in here related to including projects (like
GeoMOOSE) in the OSGeo-Live project to watch for, especially if the plan is
to have GM 3.0 included.

bobb

*To: *Live Demo <live-demo at lists.osgeo.org>, Discuss <
discuss at lists.osgeo.org>

Reducing scope of OSGeo-Live for next 11.0 release

18 April 2017

For our next OSGeo-Live release, 11.0, we propose to reduce the number of
packages included, and only support a 64 bit distribution, (32 bit will be
built but not tested or officially supported).

Factors leading to this suggestion include:
1. Some projects have dwindling communities and momentum.
2. Increased OSGeo-Live scope has increased our core maintenance and
testing.
3. Reduced engagement from projects (partly due to less core time spent
reaching out to projects)
4. Missing our first release milestone in 9 years.

>From our options of reduce quality, become more efficient, increase
volunteer engagement, find a sponsor to support core activities, and reduce
scope, reducing scope is our most viable and acceptable option. Other ideas
are welcomed.

Questions we will ask in assessing which projects to keep include:
1. Is there an ACTIVE OSGeo-Live liaison person/people for the project?
Prior list is copied to "Contact" column at: https://docs.google.com/
spreadsheets/d/1Q5BaEgQtgw4O1bXyeWMlM8XtAOhUgcjZ7Y2O0FZc2H0/edit?hl=en_GB#
gid=2014800150
2. Has the Project Overview and Quickstart been reviewed and are they
current and complete?
3. Do OpenHub metrics reflect an active and healthy community:
https://live.osgeo.org/en/metrics.html
4. Is the project being updated on OSGeo-Live with each release?

Key Milestones
---------------
5-Jun-2017 OSGeo-Live Feature Freeze (final application versions installed)
19-Jun-2017 OSGeo-Live delivered to UAT (final application versions
installed - Beta stage)
24-Jul-2017 OSGeo-Live Final ISO
14-Aug-2017 FOSS4G 2017 Boston

full schedule:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Al9zh8DjmU_
RdE1SYUN3YWJ2N1NpSUczbW9IRWZNclE&hl=en_GB

About OSGeo-Live
----------------
OSGeo-Live (http://live.osgeo.org) is a Lubuntu (http://lubuntu.net) based
distribution of Geospatial Open Source Software, available via a Live DVD,
Virtual Machine and USB. You can use OSGeo-Live to try a wide variety of
open source geospatial software without installing anything.

Greetings from th OSGeo-Live Team!

--

Astrid Emde
Charter Member
Open Source Geospatial Foundation
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Astrid_Emde
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Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when
there is nothing left to take away.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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