Change in GRASS usage??

[David Mandel]

On Tue, 19 Mar 1996, Malcolm Williamson wrote:

> I suspect another factor in the diminishing postings to grassu/grassp is 
> the movement away from GRASS, towards commercial off-the-shelf software, 
> by federal government agencies. I've informally noted a higher percentage 
> of academic and international postings to grassu-list than I recall a 
> couple of years ago. This obviously doesn't imply that GRASS is becoming 
> obsolete; rather, the user base is shifting. It would be an interesting 
> exercise to try to determine exactly what the GRASS user base is... don't 
> ask me how!!
>       -Malcolm Williamson
> 

I want to thank everyone contributing to this discussion.

I totally agree about the movement away from public software to commercial 
off-the-shelf software by federal government agencies.  I also agree 
that this does not indicate any decline in interest in freeware and 
public domain software by other people.  However, this is very serious
because the US Federal government has always been a major financial
resource to freeware developers.  I should know.  While I haven't worked
for the federal government in 20 years, my salary has come from grants
and contracts from the federal government.

It is scary to see this resource dry up.  It is also very important 
to find other funding sources for freeware.  The future of products
like GRASS depend on it.

                                                 Dave Mandel


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