[Live-demo] Retire MapTiler from OSGeo-Live

[Angelos Tzotsos]

Hi all,

I definitely agree here with Howard.

Since Maptiler has been included in OSGeoLive for 5 years now, and Petr 
has agreed to follow the OSGeoLive license for his contribution, there 
has to be some kind of lineage about this project online. It cannot just 
disappear. People would think that OSGeo endorced non-free software in 
the past, which is not acceptable in my opinion.

We need an "official" public repository including the last version of 
the open source code to link to. We should then link to that in our 
documents (even if the project is removed). Cameron has already moved 
the documents in the "retired" area.

I agree that the Maptiler name has to be removed from OSGeoLive in 
future versions. But, the request for removal came much after our 
official 8.5 code freeze, so I am against removing stuff from 8.5 
especially 10 days before release.
I propose we keep the installer for 8.5 (unless Petr provides a new deb 
version with a new name).
I also propose to remove the Maptiler documents completely for this release.

Then, as Johan suggested we can fork Maptiler as Icetiler for the next 
OSGeoLive 9.0 release and restore the docs.

Best,
Angelos

PS. I also want to thank Petr for his work on Maptiler, it is much 
appreciated.

On 02/09/2015 11:46 AM, Johan Van de Wauw wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> First of all I would like to thank Petr for his work on Maptiler. He
> has actually spent a lot of unpaid time to develop a tool which is
> useful for many users.
> Earning a living from open-source is hard - as most people who have
> tried will be able to tell you.
>
> Second I would like to point out that a project that has many users
> and little contributors is not necessarily unsuccessful.  If your tool
> is working well, it may not scratch a developers itch[1].
>
> Anyway, it seems that by retiring from OsGeo live you did hit many
> developers itch, so it seems this may actually be a rebirth of the
> project.
>
> I think that the request of Petr is fair: the code remains free (which
> it should, because there can be many derived works), but he just
> requests not to use the name and logo. This leaves room for other
> developers to jump in and create a new version. Yesterday on IRC, I
> proposed the name "IceTiler" as an alternative, based on the
> rebranding done by debian for many mozilla projects [2]. Other
> suggestions are welcome :-)
>
> Taking all into account I'm +1 on removing this project from OsGeo
> live in the current form, but I think we could have "IceTiler" in a
> next release if there is sufficient interest.
>
> Kind Regards,
> Johan
>
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar
> [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation_software_rebranded_by_the_Debian_project
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>


-- 
Angelos Tzotsos
Remote Sensing Laboratory
National Technical University of Athens
http://users.ntua.gr/tzotsos