On Monday, October 21, 2002, at 11:08  PM, Bob Irvine wrote:

> Can Open Source/ linux systems and information management software 
> (e.g. GRASS 5, PHP/PostgreSQL, etc.) provide an effective and 
> affordable platform for a low cost sanitation information and risk 
> assessment system for local councils and communities?

Yes. But like any project that large your dept will need to employ a 
programmer and the quality of product you get will depend more on the 
project management, the programmers and the specification than the open 
source software. What I'm saying is that the open source software is 
fine - it's as good as any commercial software.

As for GIS sytems I have GRASS on my system and its got a huge 
development team and a big user community. There are newsgroups to help 
as well. I have seen a bush fire modelling system that's used out west 
based on GRASS which ties in topo maps, humidity and degree of dryness 
of grass and tree cover with slope angle and it can make some 
predictions as to fire spread and speed.

So yeah, open source can do it - but can your department manage it :-)

If you have SPECIFIC Linux related questions this group can probably 
help.

Michael Lake
Caver, Linux enthusiast and interested in anything technical.



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