Press release draft (was: [GRASS5] GRASS 5.0.0 to be released now)

[Mike Thomas]

Some suggested mods to the press release:

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Trento, 4.9.2002
DRAFT _NOT_ _FOR_ _DISTRIBUTION_

First Stable Release - GRASS 5 Free Geographic Information System.


Today the GRASS Development team led by Markus Neteler
released the first stable version (5.0.0) of the well known GRASS
Geographic Information System.

Grass 5 is free software, the sources of which can be found on grass.itc.it
and several mirrors along with further information.   In addition to
traditional Unix platforms such as Linux, Solaris and IRIX, Grass 5 also
runs under Microsoft Windows (R) and Apple Macintosh OS-X (R).

This new version is the first major change in GRASS functionality since
GRASS 4 was released several years ago.  Notable improvements include
support for floating point and null values.  Users can opt to use a new
windowing interface based on Tcl/Tk on those platforms supporting X Windows.

A successful series of beta and pre-releases of GRASS 5 over the last two
years has shown the software sufficiently stable to justify a wider audience
release in the view of developers and users alike.

"This release was long in coming, because the GRASS source code base
is huge." explains the team coordinator Markus Neteler. "In the last few
years GRASS also completely changed the development model adopting an open
volunteer driven process and fully going the Free Software way."

"This is a milestone release." reveals Professor Helena Mitasova from the
North Carolina State University. "Markus Neteler has successfully
coordinated many developers to undertake this huge endevour." Professor
Mitasova views the new GRASS 5.0 as a geospatial research environment which
provides solid core functionality and encourages experiments and innovation.


Contact information:

Europe:
 Markus Neteler <neteler at itc.it>
 (Requests in German, English)
 ...

North America:
 Helena Mitasova
 ...

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Bernhard Reiter" <bernhard at intevation.de>
To: "grass5 developers list" <grass5 at grass.itc.it>
Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 6:20 AM
Subject: Press release draft (was: [GRASS5] GRASS 5.0.0 to be released now)