[postgis-users] FOSS GIS suite project? (was Mandrake GIS)

[Jean-Denis Giguere]

Wood Brent a écrit :
> --- Maurizio Napolitano <napo at itc.it> wrote:
> 
>>I think that there are a lot of "GIS cd live", so is better concentrate
>>all togheter on a only one to have always new packages.
>>I think that geomorphix, for now, is a good solution: there are a lot
>>of GIS software and some data
>>Geomorphix come from the live cd morphix.
>>This live cd is like Knoppix but gnome oriented.
>>Like knoppix a user can have a permanent install on the hard disk.
>>
>>For more info (and to contribute)
>>http://www.geomorphix.org
> 
> 
> Interesting site. Could you post some info about what exactly geomorphix is &
> the project goals are?
> 
> As the one who instigated this thing, perhaps I should try to clarify exactly
> what I'm envisaging.
> 
> There are at least 4 GIS oriented LiveCD's that I'm aware of. They are not
> quite what I envisage, although they do serve a useful purpose. They do,
> however serve as a OS straightjacket. Click to install to hard drive. You can't
> easily install the GIS packages from a LiveCD to your SUSE/Fedora/Debian
> install. Certainly not on Windows, even with Cygwin. So I don't see a live CD
> as a suitable medium for supplying GIS software. Great for
> teaching/demonstrating or GIS "appliances".
> 
> It sort of boils down to the GIS as a science/toolbox debate. Most GIS users
> IMHO treat GIS as a toolbox. Developers more as a science. 
> 
> Commercial GIS products tend to be available as modular products, users
> purchase the modules they require (or can afford :-) They find a base GIS
> product with modules from available offerings, often based upon whatever they
> have used before or recommended by others in their field. (I'm talking mainly
> about science GIS users). Generally they aquire GIS much as an interoperable
> suite of software packages.
> 
> FOSS GIS comprises a range of packages to do different things. For each role in
> a GIS suite there may be more than one suitable package. Installation is NOT
> the simple process generally available for commercial software suites.
> 
> What I believe is timely, is the repackaging of FOSS GIS packages as a suite. I
> believe FOSS GIS is pretty much at a stage where a powerful and effective GIS
> suite can be packaged up and provided to users who don't have to aquire 5-10+
> different packages from various places and assemble them on their systems to
> make a functuinal GIS suite.

What do you think about virtual package. Many distribution offer this 
option (Mandrake and Debian do, other probably). When you install a 
virtual package, you install all the dependencies of this virtual 
package (other package like MapServer, Grass, ..., ..., ...) and you 
configure them. I don't have to redo work that was previously done.
> 
> I'm fully aware (and appreciate) that many of the packages (JUMP, QGIS, GRASS)
> are undergoing frantic development right now, and adding to the potential power
> of a GIS suite. I believe they are currently stable and functional enough to be
> more than useful and effective.
> 
> Freegis provides access to the various FOSS GIS packages, but does not attempt
> to bundle them into a suite, which I feel is the next step required to foster
> the use of FOSS GIS & the growth of the FOSS GIS community.

It will be very important to have a workplace. Which web site or 
organisation can given complete tools for building this suite ?
> 
> I'm not sure how much of this sort of role the Cooperative GIS group are doing,
> but perhaps that could be a good place to start.
> 
> 
> Brent Wood
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