[Qgis-user] About QGIS on Windows - a follow up.

[Etienne Tourigny]

On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 7:58 PM, Mats Elfström
<mats.elfstrom at giskraft.com> wrote:
> Hi!
> I am somewhat puzzled by a remark by Mr Paolo Cavallini in another thread.
> The poster there had experienced serious difficulties when updating his
> QGIS.
>
> His main mistake seems to be that he was running Windows, and Paolo wrote:
> Please also remember that Windows packaging involves a tremendous amount
> of effort and skills, and it is being done as a favour for our Windows
> users.
>
> It would be good if someone could pay a developer to work on Windows
> (but also OSX, etc.) packaging.
>
> I'd like to comment on this.
> Globally, according to http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp,
> some 84 % run Windows flavors, and 5 % are Linux users.
> Surely those numbers merit a little more than a 'favour' for Windows users?

Agreed that there are many more Windows users than linux users,
however the ratio is *probably* inverted when you only look at users
of open-source software, especially in the GIS world.
This might explain why linux is more of a priority than Windows.  Also
that most devs use linux out of choice (as I do for example).

It would be interesting to know - what is the OS ratio of qgis users?
Is there a way we can collect that information? Package downloads is
not a good metric. How about a poll?

In support of Paolo's arguments - nothing is free and many people do
this out of their free time. And since most devs use linux- you
understand why windows seems less of a priority.

However, for a free project I think QGis is a tremendous success, and
windows packages are quite fine, except for some issues that pop up
once a while.

cheers
Etienne

>
> According to the QGIS download page, there are several Linux flavors of QGIS
> available, compared to 1 Windows version (in two packages).
> Is Linux packaging so easy that 10+ versions can be maintained without any
> effort?
>
> And last, who is paying for all the Linux oriented development and packaging
> going on, and do you keep funds separate for Linux and Windows work?
>
> I realize that I will be flamed for this, but as I am very fond of Open
> Source and QGIS, I am saddened by the disregard for the majority of computer
> users, many of whom do not even have the option to choose their operating
> system.
>
> Regards, Mats.E
> --
>
> ______________________________________________
> GisKraft, GIS och webkonsult
> Mats Elfström, Väpplingvägen 21, SE-227 38 LUND, Sweden
> tel: +46 70 595 39 35 / web: www.giskraft.com
>
>
>
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