[Incubator] Considering Portable GIS as an OSGeo community project

Landon Blake sunburned.surveyor at gmail.com
Sun Aug 27 10:34:18 PDT 2017 

If I can help Jo with set-up as a community project, let me know. I'm a
Windows user...so I can help with the testing of releases. I'd also be
interested in learning more about how this works. :]

Landon

On Thu, Aug 24, 2017 at 4:26 AM, Jo Cook <jocook at astuntechnology.com> wrote:

> Hi Jeff,
>
> There's no relationship as such between Portable GIS and OSGeo4W- they are
> really complimentary projects with different objectives. The way I see it,
> Portable GIS provides a portable (hence the name) set of open source
> geospatial tools that don't require installation and can be taken from
> windows computer to windows computer on a USB stick,compared to OSGeo4W,
> which provides a streamlined way of installing the tools on a machine. They
> have some packages in common, but not all (I include PostgreSQL/PostGIS and
> GeoServer alongside QGIS, Mapserver etc, but otherwise a much more limited
> set of tools than OSGeo4W due to space considerations).
>
> When OSGeo4W first came out (believe it or not, Portable GIS predates it)
> there was some discussion about the possible relationship between the two
> packages at that point, but like I say, they have different objectives and
> exist in harmony together.
>
> Hope that clears things up- I'll add some disambiguation to the readme and
> website next time I do an update!
>
> Jo
>
> On Wed, Aug 23, 2017 at 9:16 PM, Jeffrey Johnson <ortelius at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Just curious about the relationship to osgeo4w
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 23, 2017 at 1:06 PM, Cameron Shorter
>> <cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Hi Jo,
>> >
>> > I'm really excited to see you pushing Portable GIS forward. I think that
>> > having a windows based OSGeo distribution is a great complement to
>> > OSGeo-Live, as OSGeo-Live is tied into (and limited to) being a linux
>> > distribution.
>> >
>> > I also see potential for collaboration between OSGeo-Live and Portable
>> GIS.
>> > Eg, the OSGeo-Live Project Overviews could note whether the project is
>> > available on Portable GIS.
>> >
>> > We could also potentially align OSGeo-Live and Portable GIS release
>> > schedules (which would help with aligning documentation).
>> >
>> > Re packaging, have you considered building with cygwin (which is Open
>> > Source)?
>> >
>> > I'm happy to answer questions about license. While I'm not a lawyer, I
>> have
>> > been involved in plenty of licensing selection discussions, including
>> for
>> > OSGeo-Live.
>> >
>> > Re Portable GIS licensing, I assume your build tools are not embedded
>> in the
>> > final Portable GIS software distribution? That would mean that the final
>> > software distribution does not inherit to the license of the build
>> tools. So
>> > I suspect you should be ok to select what ever license you choose for
>> the
>> > build tools. That is how we have approached the OSGeo-Live build
>> scripts,
>> > which are LGPL. (Documentation is licensed under CC-By for Project
>> Overviews
>> > and CC-By-SA for Quickstarts).
>> >
>> > Warm regards, Cameron
>> >
>> >
>> > On 24/8/17 1:22 am, Jo Cook wrote:
>> >
>> > Hi Jody and list,
>> >
>> > Having had a bit of a think about licensing, I had previously chosen
>> GPLv3
>> > *for my components alone* and I think I'm happy with that. As far as I
>> can
>> > tell, I can license my modifications alone with GPLv3 regardless of
>> what the
>> > software projects themselves are. I've had a look at how OSGeo Live
>> works,
>> > but that doesn't help much (https://live.osgeo.org/en/copyright.html).
>> Is
>> > there anyone on the list who could help me out with this- basically to
>> > confirm or deny?
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> >
>> > Jo
>> >
>> > On Wed, Aug 23, 2017 at 8:55 AM, Jo Cook <jocook at astuntechnology.com>
>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Hi Jody,
>> >>
>> >> That all sounds really encouraging and yes I'd be happy to go through
>> the
>> >> process with you and the team. We (Astun) potentially have another
>> project
>> >> that we'd like to submit for consideration too, and I'll be in touch
>> >> separately about that one.
>> >>
>> >> Regarding autoit, no you don't need to purchase anything to use it.
>> Having
>> >> thought about this in some more detail, I think I will try to move
>> away from
>> >> that dependency and try to find an open source alternative but that
>> will
>> >> obviously take some time to work through, so it would be good if we
>> could
>> >> start working through the process of becoming a community project
>> while that
>> >> is ongoing.
>> >>
>> >> I'll make some tweaks to the repository to make sure that the various
>> docs
>> >> are easy to find, and then maybe come back to you when that's ready. I
>> want
>> >> to think a little about whether I'm using the most appropriate license
>> too.
>> >>
>> >> Regards
>> >>
>> >> Jo
>> >>
>> >> On Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 6:12 PM, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> Glad to hear from you Jo!
>> >>>
>> >>> Although the "OSGeo community" initiative was started last year, we
>> have
>> >>> not had a chance to try it out yet (perhaps due to lack of
>> publicity). If
>> >>> you are patient with us we would enjoy going through this process
>> with you,
>> >>> and revising our notes as we go.
>> >>>
>> >>> The wiki OSGeo Community Projects page has the following recipe:
>> >>>
>> >>> If your project would like to join OSGeo the technology initiative
>> asks:
>> >>>
>> >>> That your project is geospatial (or directly supports geospatial
>> >>> applications);
>> >>>
>> >>> Data & doc projects would of course need an appropriate data or
>> >>> documentation license
>> >>>
>> >>> That your project is open source
>> >>>
>> >>> Uses an OSI approved open source license
>> >>> That you know where your source code came from, and that care is taken
>> >>> when accepting external contributions
>> >>>
>> >>> Participatory (accepts pull-requests)
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> Along with a few notes on how we can quickly check the LICENSE,
>> >>> CONTRIBUTING, README files.
>> >>>
>> >>> autoit
>> >>>
>> >>> Your question about autoit is tricky, it is freely distributable - so
>> not
>> >>> a barrier to use. We are actually in a similar spot for the GeoTools
>> and
>> >>> GeoServer projects. When they were first created Java was not open
>> source so
>> >>> there were some very heated discussions with the gvSig team on if you
>> could
>> >>> ever make a free software solution using Java.
>> >>>
>> >>> But we are an open source software foundation (not at a free software
>> >>> foundation) allowing GeoTools, GeoServer .. and by extension autoit.
>> >>>
>> >>> This question of Java still troubles us, while Java is now open
>> source,
>> >>> the image processing library that was included in Java is still only
>> free to
>> >>> distribute. This causes problems for the OSGeo Live and uDig projects.
>> >>>
>> >>> I would be concerned though if people need to purchase autoit in
>> order to
>> >>> work on your project? There is a slight difference between being
>> required to
>> >>> purchase a tool, and optionally using a tool. For GeoTools we can
>> "work
>> >>> with" the Oracle Database (if user installs the right jars they have
>> >>> downloaded from Oracle) or ArcSDE (if the user installs the right
>> jars they
>> >>> have purchased from ESRI). However if a contributor is not in
>> possession of
>> >>> these artifacts they can still work on the project as a whole.
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> --
>> >>> Jody Garnett
>> >>>
>> >>> On 22 August 2017 at 06:25, Jo Cook <jocook at astuntechnology.com>
>> wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Hi Incubator List,
>> >>>>
>> >>>> As you may or may not know, I have been running a small project
>> called
>> >>>> Portable GIS (GIS on a USB stick for Windows) for a number of years.
>> The
>> >>>> basic premise is to provide a no-install, no-config version of many
>> of the
>> >>>> common open source GIS projects on a USB stick.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Recently I built a website for the project (portablegis.xyz) and I'm
>> >>>> working through the process of documenting and publishing all the
>> >>>> configuration changes that need to be made to make projects portable
>> (mainly
>> >>>> batch files to be honest). This also includes the source code for
>> building
>> >>>> the menu and installer files.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> This is on Gitlab at https://gitlab.com/archaeogeek/portable-gis so
>> that
>> >>>> I can now start accepting contributions. Note that this repository
>> does not
>> >>>> contain the actual source code for the projects such as QGIS, it just
>> >>>> contains the files that need to be adjusted to make it work portably.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> One of my colleagues has suggested that Portable GIS could be an
>> OSGeo
>> >>>> Community Project, so here I am, asking about it :-)
>> >>>>
>> >>>> My main concern is that autoit, which I used for building the menu,
>> is
>> >>>> freeware rather than opensource (see https://www.autoitscript.com/s
>> ite/ and
>> >>>> specifically https://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/license.htm).
>> My gut
>> >>>> feeling is that this bars Portable GIS from being truly open source,
>> and
>> >>>> hence not suitable for being an OSGeo Community Project. Would that
>> be
>> >>>> correct?
>> >>>>
>> >>>> If this was the only bar to entry, I could certainly look at
>> alternative
>> >>>> options for building the menu.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Regards
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Jo
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> --
>> >>>> Jo Cook
>> >>>> t:+44 7930 524 155/twitter:@archaeogeek
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> --
>> >>>> Astun Technology Ltd, The Coach House, 17 West Street, Epsom, Surrey,
>> >>>> KT18 7RL, UK
>> >>>> t:+44 1372 744 009 w: astuntechnology.com twitter:@astuntech
>> >>>>
>> >>>> iShare - enterprise geographic intelligence platform
>> >>>> GeoServer, PostGIS and QGIS training
>> >>>> Helpdesk and customer portal
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Company registration no. 5410695. Registered in England and Wales.
>> >>>> Registered office: 120 Manor Green Road, Epsom, Surrey, KT19 8LN VAT
>> no.
>> >>>> 864201149.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> _______________________________________________
>> >>>> Incubator mailing list
>> >>>> Incubator at lists.osgeo.org
>> >>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> Jo Cook
>> >> t:+44 7930 524 155/twitter:@archaeogeek
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Jo Cook
>> > t:+44 7930 524 155/twitter:@archaeogeek
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Astun Technology Ltd, The Coach House, 17 West Street, Epsom, Surrey,
>> KT18
>> > 7RL, UK
>> > t:+44 1372 744 009 w: astuntechnology.com twitter:@astuntech
>> >
>> > iShare - enterprise geographic intelligence platform
>> > GeoServer, PostGIS and QGIS training
>> > Helpdesk and customer portal
>> >
>> > Company registration no. 5410695. Registered in England and Wales.
>> > Registered office: 120 Manor Green Road, Epsom, Surrey, KT19 8LN VAT no.
>> > 864201149.
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Incubator mailing list
>> > Incubator at lists.osgeo.org
>> > https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Cameron Shorter
>> > M +61 419 142 254
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Incubator mailing list
>> > Incubator at lists.osgeo.org
>> > https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator
>>
>
>
>
> --
> *Jo Cook*
> t:+44 7930 524 155 <+44%207930%20524155>/twitter:@archaeogeek
>
>
> --
> Astun Technology Ltd, The Coach House, 17 West Street, Epsom, Surrey, KT18
> 7RL, UK
> t:+44 1372 744 009 <+44%201372%20744009> w: astuntechnology.com twitter:
> @astuntech <https://twitter.com/astuntech>
>
> iShare - enterprise geographic intelligence platform
> <https://astuntechnology.com/ishare/>
> GeoServer, PostGIS and QGIS training
> <https://astuntechnology.com/services/#training>
> Helpdesk and customer portal
> <http://support.astuntechnology.com/support/login>
>
> Company registration no. 5410695. Registered in England and Wales.
> Registered office: 120 Manor Green Road, Epsom, Surrey, KT19 8LN VAT no.
> 864201149.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Incubator mailing list
> Incubator at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator
>



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