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

[Angelos Tzotsos]

Hi Cameron,

Running OSGeoLive on the cloud is trivial and is already offered by 
commercial cloud providers (e.g. I have seen it in CreoDIAS which is 
based on OpenStack)
https://creodias.eu/-/how-to-get-access-to-gui-on-vm-with-osgeolive-image-

Best,
Angelos

On 2/7/22 20:43, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> Something which is getting more-and-more feasible every year is to run
> OSGeo-Live as a virtual machine in the cloud.
> We actually managed to do this back in 2009
> <http://cameronshorter.blogspot.com/2009/10/try-open-source-geospatial-desktop.html>,
> but the partners working on it got stuck in the following release.
> Someone might want to take another look at this approach?
>
> On Tue, 8 Feb 2022 at 01:47, James Klassen <jklassen at sharedgeo.org> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> osgeolive mailing list
>>>> osgeolive at lists.osgeo.org
>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/osgeolive
>>>
>>> --
>>> Angelos Tzotsos, PhD
>>> President
>>> Open Source Geospatial Foundation
>>> http://users.ntua.gr/tzotsos
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> osgeolive mailing list
>>> osgeolive at lists.osgeo.org
>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/osgeolive
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> osgeolive mailing list
>> osgeolive at lists.osgeo.org
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/osgeolive
>>
>


-- 
Angelos Tzotsos, PhD
President
Open Source Geospatial Foundation
http://users.ntua.gr/tzotsos