Not entirely an OSGeo specific point, but this type of criticism open source
is hard, closed source is easy is not uncommon. Some 17 years of experience
working with IT in organisations gets me a one word response to such a claim I
will not repeat here, but it starts with a b and sounds a lot like hillocks...
What closed source, marketing driven, products tend to focus on is the
appearance of easy. It has been easy to set up a Microsoft Exchange server for
over 10 years, in the sense of starting with a server and successfully sending
and receiving email, etc.. As so many compromised servers over the same 10
years easily demonstrate, it is hard (and requires expertise) to setup said
server to only send/receive email just for those who should be able to
send/receive email, hard to get said mail server to scale with your
organisation, hard to unpick it after a malware infestation (or bad AV update),
hard to migrate it to another mail server, nearly impossible to use it from
your choice of desktop platforms and actually impossible to deploy it on your
choice of server platforms. There are many other examples, many of which from
Microsoft, with the same story - deceptively easy to get going, desperately
hard to make it do what you finally realise is best for *your* organisation.
Simplicity in the sense of does not require expertise to make work almost
certainly means impossible or very, very difficult to finally make it work the
way you need it. My exposure to .net developments and the final convoluted
efforts developers go through to bend to their will have provided sufficient
evidence for me to tell colleagues in other organisations that it is a mistake
to be deceived by rapid early progress. The tortoise and the hare is a very old
story...
So if you want simplicity, put some of the building blocks together for the new
user; build VMs with complete working setups that just need network
configuration and data to start doing things. But please don't repeat the
approach of the marketeers, make something simple and restricted and then claim
something that just ain't true!
Cheers
Chris
- Arnie Shore shor...@gmail.com wrote:
As a very interested lurker, and as one who has developed an Open
Source Computer-Aided-Dispatch system that has embedded google's maps
product, I can tell you that one of the deterrents I see is the
relative complexity of an Open Source GIS implementation - as compared
to the use of GMaps, which also, of course and notably, is free. The
single source of both the tiles as well as the API is relatively
straightforward for the non-cartographer novice.
My user community includes a fair-sized portion who have never before
implemented a web-server-based system, and our package is designed to
minimize the number of elements that need separate collection and
configuration. To tell them that they need a map server in addition to
the stack that WAMP, XAMPP, MAMP, installs in a single executable will
turn away too many candidates, IMO. In our case, the tile-serving
capabilities could be met by a rather limited set of server-side
functions that are OL-aware. But I haven't seen anything like that in
the panoply of products that comprises the OSGeo world. Please correct
me on this if such exits.
(Further evidence of the importance of the ease-of-implementation
issue is the proliferation of open source libraries that include
capabilities taht are based on a GMaps foundation.)
I will say that my users - many of whom are into emergency operations
- indeed are asking for an implementation that wd allow operation
while disconnected from the Internet. Impossible in a GMaps-based
solution, but completely feasible in one based on OpenLayers plus
locally stored OSM tiles. Users I've pointed to the available OSM
sites have told me that the level of detail wd be completely
satisfactory as a suitable replacement for GMaps. Which is a
critically important data point, IMO.
My perception of the current evolution of the world of Open Source GIS
is toward greater complexity and richness. Which certainly makes for
excitement and challenge for its enthusiasts; but that isn't doing
much for those of us along the borders looking over the fences, and
with limited hours available to hop that fence and get involved.
Make entry easier than it is, folks. Please?
A. Shore
Annapolis, MD
On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 5:09 PM, Ravi ravivundava...@yahoo.com
wrote:
Hi,
have been going through all the wishes, all the arguments about how
Open Source GIS must evolve etc. ...
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
--
Files attached to this email may be in ISO 26300 format (OASIS Open Document
Format). If you have difficulty opening them, please visit http://iso26300.info
for more information.
