MapServer Foundation -- marching forward

[Blammo]

Puneet Kishor wrote:

>
>Getting the previous bonhomie back. Priceless.
>  
>
I'll second this.

>I have no vested interest in MapServer other than seeing it become the 
>most popular, most easy to use, most feature-complete, product in its 
>class. 
>  
>
Here-here.

Ok, My turn . . . .

I do use MapServer have been for a couple of years now in a few
different business models with great success. I've been using AutoDesk
Products since AutoCAD 6(something), on PC'c, Mac, and even Solaris.  I
originally tried out MapServer because MapGuide only ran on Windows (No
Windows Servers!, say it with me . . .).  There's no going back for me.

Before trying out MapServer, I wrote a couple of little versions of
MapServer like packages of my own.  Since going down the MapServer path
life has been good.   With the addition of the  MSE? i can see things
improving with respect to AutoDesk compatibility which has been a sore
point with me in the past, as I do quite a lot of AutoDesk Development
as well, and most recently with MapServer.  While the Foundation would
seem like a real good thing to me at first, I'm still somewhat cautious
about the whole deal.  I do realize the need for the Foundation aspect,
and having the support of a large Company should be thought of as a good
thing with respect to forming a Foundation.

Let's focus on the possiblities.   I haven't read anything saying the
Foundation idea  is a bad one. (I didn't read Every single post, but a
lot of them).  The main dissentions I've noticed are:

    1.) The cloak and Dagger approach to the initial conversations, not
at all how I would have approached it, something more like Option #3
would have been much better (Thanks Ed, nicely Written).

    2.) The Naming ambiguity, I'm for keeping the "MapServer" moniker,
and believe me, I thought the name should have been changed for a long
time.  It's just got too much industry recognition now to mess with it IMO.

Once these two points are cleared up there's not much that I can see in
the way of getting back to the Business of making Maps.  ;c)

bobb