[GRASS-user] GIS software popularity ranking: http://gisgeography.com/mapping-out-gis-software-landscape

[Rainer M Krug]

Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com> writes:

> On Tue, 27 Sep 2016, Thomas Adams wrote:
>
>> The only problem (not for us per se) is wider acceptance of GRASS GIS
>> based on inherent biases derived from a lack of familiarity with GRASS and
>> blind disregard for it. At worst, GRASS' capabilities are misrepresented.
>> GRASS, QGIS, SAGA GIS, etc. represent threats to ESRI -- they are not
>> above spreading falsehoods... A larger user base enriches open source
>> projects -- R serves as a great example...
>
> Tom,
>
>   I concur completely. Think back to 1981-1989 when no one was fired for
> specifying IBM for PC hardware despite Epson, Compaq, Leading Edge, etc.
> being technically better and _much_ less expensive.
>
>   Because ESRI, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, etc. see F/OSS as a threat they do
> throw around their weight to maintain market share. Part of the way they do
> this is by purchasing advertising space in general market publications as
> well as specialty publications for their particular software. Therefore,
> those publications will not promote F/OSS software since there's no revenue
> from this source and they are, after all, in business to make money.
>
>   Perhaps the best way of advocating for GRASS, R, etc. is a two-pronged
> approach. The prong of least resistance is to demonstrate the capabilities
> of F/OSS software to provide necessary business solutions by using this
> software rather than proprietary versions. I've run my environmental
> consultancy since 1997 using only linux and F/OSS applications (most
> frequently LaTeX, R, GRASS, and PostgreSQL/SQLite.
>
>   The second prong is more difficult: get users who regularly use GRASS, R,
> LibreOffice, and other F/OSS applications to defenestrate and move to linux.
> Given the plethora of various Ubuntu flavors most who make the move find it
> painless and learn the joy of free and better quality software at the OS
> level, too.

I agree that Linux is a great OS, but I moved to Apple (not the place
here to discuss why) and I try to advocate that one can use F/OSS
software easily when using other OS as well - Apple with OS X and macOS
and homebrew works perfectly, and I think that Windows works as well -
although not that easily (?). So I say: it is very important to use
F/OSS software, on whatever OS you are working. If you want to (and it
is not difficult) switch to Linux, but this is not essential.

Cheers,

Rainer

>
> Rich
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-- 
Rainer M. Krug
email: Rainer<at>krugs<dot>de
PGP: 0x0F52F982
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