[osgeo4w-dev] Proposal: starting 64 bit package tree

[Alex Mandel]

It seems to come up often in my discussions with Desktop users, 64 bit
versions of QGIS and other major osgeo applications would be a great
boon for power users. With most new workstations capable of 64 bit and
many power users opting to install Win 7 64 bit (which is stable as
compared to win xp 64 bit), I think we should start working towards
providing binaries.

Not only would it make users happy, but it would actually provide a
competitive advantage over some other systems. Not being able to use the
full 4-8 GB of ram common in GIS workstations is somewhat frustrating.

I realize not everything in osgeo4w is available or ready for 64 bit,
and 64 bit python can get messy due to lack of packages (but numpy is
available). So my proposal is that we make a directory parallel to the
current osgeo4w and either augment the current installer with an option
to choose it or just have a separate setup.exe pretty much identical to
the 32bit one currently and call it osgeo4w64. That way there's a place
to at least start putting what packages are available into the system.

I have 64 bit users/machines willing to test and might be able to get a
dedicated build VM for 64 bit if needed.

Thanks,
Alex