[OSGeoLive] Will there be an ARM version of the osgeo live?

[James Klassen]

There was discussion awhile back about supporting ARM for Raspberry Pi and
similar SBCs that came to the same conclusion that it would take more
developer resources that were available.

OSGeo Live is meant to “just work” to encourage new users explore the
software without having to first face the learning curve of getting it
installed and configured correctly.  That is a lot more difficult to
accomplish when users face to face the variations inherent in running
different architectures.

Most, but not all of the packages that go into OSGeo Live are available on
ARM (are in Ubuntu-GIS and Debian-GIS or are platform agnostic and install
the same files as on x86).  So, technically it isn’t too far fetched.  But,
if I remember correctly, pain points are testing and documentation.  I’d
venture a guess that, by far, nearly all of the developer time on OSGeo
Live is spent on testing and documentation.

Another issue with ARM is that while the user space is the same/similar
across ARM devices, a bootable image (like we do with x86) would have to be
tailored to each device.  Maybe there would be a way to just provide a user
space and have the user provide the matching version of Ubuntu for their
machine.  Maybe the whole thing could be built into a snap or flatpak or
appimage.  It would still be a different experience than we’ve
traditionally had for x86 which raises documentation and ease of use
concerns.


I’m also a bit surprised the M1 Macs can’t run x86 OSes in emulation.
There were programs that emulated a PC to allow 68k and PowerPC  era Macs
to run DOS/Windows.

On Sat, Feb 5, 2022 at 04:06 Angelos Tzotsos <gcpp.kalxas at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Barend,
>
> We do not have an ARM version. This would require more developer
> resources than we currently have, so there is currently no plan to
> support this architecture.
>
> Best,
> Angelos
>
> On 2/2/22 01:24, Kobben, Barend (UT-ITC) wrote:
> > For installation in the Parallels virtual machine on a new MacPro
> (running on the Apple silicon architecture), an ARM version instead of an
> Intel version is needed. Is that available, or will in be...? Or are there
> alternative ways to get it running on a Mac M1...?
> >
> > --
> > Barend Köbben
> > Senior Lecturer – ITC-GIP & ATLAS, University Twente
> > PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede (The Netherlands)
> > +31-(0)53 4874 253 / room 1-065 ITC
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > osgeolive at lists.osgeo.org
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>
>
> --
> Angelos Tzotsos, PhD
> President
> Open Source Geospatial Foundation
> http://users.ntua.gr/tzotsos
>
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