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

[Markus Neteler]

On Wed, Sep 04, 2002 at 08:05:26PM +1000, ptmlicence wrote:
> Hi all.
> 
> Taking into account Helen's, Glynn's and Roger's comments and avoiding
> detailed comments on the issue of Baylor University code ownership, but
> giving it a "quick nod" as befits a press release:

... based on this a slightly modified version:
 
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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 at
ITC-irst, Italy, on http://grass.itc.it and several mirrors along
with documentation and sample data. Mirror sites include Baylor University
(http://www3.baylor.edu/~grass/) and and http://grass.ibiblio.org
in the USA.  Baylor University has long been associated with GRASS
development efforts and the GRASS community appreciates and acknowledges
that support.

In addition to traditional Unix platforms such as Linux, Solaris and
IRIX, experimental versions of GRASS 5 also run under Microsoft
Windows (R) using the Cygwin tools and Apple Macintosh OS-X (R), also known
as Darwin. It was also ported to handheld devices such as Compaq/iPAQ (R)
and SHARP/Zaurus (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
Window.

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 of
North Carolina State University. "Markus Neteler has successfully
coordinated many developers to undertake this huge endeavor."
Professor Mitasova views GRASS 5.0 as a unique geospatial research
environment which encourages experiments and innovation.

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Feel free to modify,

 Markus