1. Steininger & Bocher: An Overview on Current
Free 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)
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2. 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)
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3. 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
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4. 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
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5. 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
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6. 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 their
requirements (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
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7. 16 CONCLUSIONS
16 Conclusions
• GIScience research early adopters
• Best for research!
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