Steininger & Bocher: An Overview on CurrentFree and Open Source Desktop GIS Developments

Atle F. Sveen

6. november 2008

1 Agenda

• Define what “Free” and “Open Source” software is

• Some background on Free GIS Software

• The article presents 10 Desktop GIS Projects, we look closer at 5 of them

With examples and screenshots

• Discuss some advantages and disadvantages of FOS GIS

2 Free/Open Source Software

The four freedoms:

1. Run

2. study and adapt

3. redistribute

4. improve and redistribute improvements

i.e. The source code must be available.

Free as in speach, not beer!

• The FSF (Free Software Foundation) → Ideological

• The OSI (Open Source Initiative) → Open Source as a brand

• All FOSS licenses approved by both (technically: no diff

Proprietary Software: Non-free (pay for use)

1

5 FOS GIS SOFTWARE

3 Licenses

• FOSS have licenses to stop companies from taking control over the code.

• Viral licenses: all derivatives must use same license (GPL)

• Corporate style: Aimed at companies reserving some rights (Mozilla)

• Academic style: Use at own will (BSD)

4 Organisations

• OSGeo: Open Source Geospatial Foundation

• funded 2006

• hosts projects

• journal, conferences (FOSS4G) etc

vs.

• OGC: Open Geospatial Consortium

• NOT about FOSS

• open standards

5 FOS GIS Software

• Group on usage

library (GDAL, GeoTools)

DB (PostGIS)

Web server (Geoserver, Mapserver)

desktop (GRASS, qGis)

• Group on programming language

(C++ / Java)

• Group on foundation and maintenance

(Commercial companies, enthusiasts, research)

2

8 PROJECTS EVALUATED

6 Desktop GIS

What is a Desktop GIS?

• personal computer

• display

• query

• update

• analyze

7 Evaluation Criteria

• Focus on a subset of criteria

Long Term

Current State

• will summarize these

8 Projects Evaluated

• We focus on 5 of these

GRASS

qGIS

uDig

OpenJUMP

OrbisGIS

3

10 QUANTUM GIS

9 GRASS

Geographic Resources Analysis Support System

• Developed in the 80’s by US Army

• Alternative to Esri ARCINFO

• raster analysis

• programmed in C

• sponsorship ended in 90’es, released under GPL in 1999

• Advanced UNIX GUI

• large user base

FACTS:

OS ALL

language C, Tcl/Tk, python, shell scripting

license GPL

10 Quantum GIS

• Easy to use and fast data viewer

• heavy use of plugins

• large user base

FACTS:

OS ALL

language C++, Qt4, Python

license GPL

4

12 JUMP AND OPENJUMP FAMILY

11 uDig

User-Friendly Desktop Internet GIS

• Web-focused (data from DB’s over Internet)

• Comercially sponsored (Refractions)

• Uses the Eclipse platform

• Front-end for PostGIS?

• large community, good documentation

FACTS:

OS ALL

language JAVA

license LGPL (eclipse is EPL)

12 JUMP and OpenJUMP family

Open Java Unified Mapping Platform

• Initiated by Canadian companies and ministeries in 2002

• Focused on data editing

• lost financial support

• lots of forks emerged

• rather small community

• some lack of documentation

FACTS:

OS Linux, Windows (maybe OS X??)

language JAVA

license GPL

5

15 DISADVANTAGES

13 OrbisGIS

• First public version in Jan 2008

• Developed by a french research institute

• targets GIS analysts and researchers

• Started as they found that none of the existing JAVA projects met theirrequirements (stability and extensibility)

• features Basic viewing and querying of vector and raster data

FACTS:

OS ALL

language JAVA

license GPL

14 Advantages

• No license fees

• Support of standards (OGC) and used formats (Shapefiles) important

• From a university perspective:

Helps learning (free to try)

No re-inventing the wheel

15 Disadvantages

• Training costs

• Installation know-how

• Limited documentation

• Lack of continuity and long-term planning

• Maybe no or little support

• From a university perspective:

Companies biased

6

16 CONCLUSIONS

16 Conclusions

• GIScience research early adopters

• Best for research!

7