[Marketing] Re: [osgeo4w-dev] Binaries Packaging - A Strategic Investment

Committees Marketing
1

I spy a GSOC project idea: Packaging automation & a guide to train new
packagers based on the automated system.
Maybe with Frank and Alan as mentors?

Should we also consider doing a packaging session at the sprint at
Foss4gNA? Alan will you be there to teach packaging for debian/ubuntu?

Thanks,
Alex

On 03/20/2012 11:35 PM, cavallini@faunalia.it wrote:

Good point, agreed fully.
Thanks for raising this out.
Ready to help of necessary.

---
http://faunalia.it/pc
Sent from mobile, sorry for being short

----- Reply message -----
Da: "Frank Warmerdam" <warmerdam@pobox.com>
A: "OSGeo-Board" <board@lists.osgeo.org>
Cc: "Alan Boudreault" <aboudreault@mapgears.com>, "Brian Hamlin" <maplabs@light42.com>, "osgeo4w-dev" <osgeo4w-dev@lists.osgeo.org>, <ubuntu@lists.osgeo.org>
Oggetto: [osgeo4w-dev] Binaries Packaging - A Strategic Investment
Data: mer, mar 21, 2012 07:04

Folks,

I've mentioned this before, and I don't have anything surprising to add now.
I just wanted to bump this topic.

I believe that producing good quality integrated distributions of OSGeo
binary software for a major user platforms is strategically important for
OSGeo and would be worth an investment of moderate amounts of money to
promote.

For me two packaging efforts stick out, though I might be biased.

1) OSGeo4W - I think the Windows environment is (still?) very important and
OSGeo4W is a credible community effort to satisfy it that could benefit
from more involvement, polish and a broader package set.

2) Debian/Ubuntu/LiveDVD - I believe that Ubuntu is today the dominant
desktop/server linux system and that the packaging efforts of the DebianGIS,
UbuntuGIS and LiveDVD groups build on one another and provide high impact.

If board members or community members see high impact and reasonably
priced opportunities to extend these efforts with OSGeo money I hope
they will come forward with them. I'd also like to see us do more on the
OSGeo web site, with case studies, etc to promote these package suites
in a manner appropriate to their level of readiness.

I also think the MacOS environment is very important but I'm not entirely
clear on the best way of addressing that. Good ideas on this aspect are
also welcome.

Best regards,

_______________________________________________
osgeo4w-dev mailing list
osgeo4w-dev@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/osgeo4w-dev

2

On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 9:32 AM, Alex Mandel <tech_dev@wildintellect.com> wrote:

I spy a GSOC project idea: Packaging automation & a guide to train new
packagers based on the automated system.
Maybe with Frank and Alan as mentors?

Alex,

Unfortunately my understanding is that GSoC is quite focused on
actual code development and I think the above would not be considered
suitable as a project.

Should we also consider doing a packaging session at the sprint at
Foss4gNA? Alan will you be there to teach packaging for debian/ubuntu?

I like this idea, though I won't be there.

Best regards,
--
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam@pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush | Geospatial Software Developer

3

Don't forget the ELGIS people (Redhat et a.) and Angelos for OpenSuse.

Should we start a new mailing list for packaging - packagers@osgeo.org?
Wiki page for sure with links to each of the platforms packaging efforts.

I would be happy to do a packaging sprint, of course I've been trying to
learn packaging for Ubuntu for years now and think a couple of hours
with an expert would really bring people up to speed with at least being
able to keep packages up to date.

Anyone else going to be at FOSS4gNA?

Thanks,
Alex

On 03/24/2012 02:05 PM, Pirmin Kalberer wrote:

Frank, Alain, Alex and others,

I had a long discussion with Jürgen Fischer about packaging at the German
FOSSGIS conference this week. As you may know he's packaging QGIS for many
platforms inlcuding UbuntuGIS and OSGEO4W. Since QGIS has many dependencies,
he's also involved in packaging or updating dependent packages, escpecially
for OSGEO4W.
In my opinion, the main packagers (Alan Boudreault/Vincent Foley on Ubuntu,
Francesco P. Lovergine on Debian, Jürgen Fischer and Tamas Szekeres on WIndows
and William Kyngesburye on Mac come into my mind), should build a group and
improve communication.
I also think that funding the work of these packagers would be a very good
investment for the FOSSGIS community.
I like Alex' idea of training courses for new packagers very much. It would be
great, if these expert packagers would get "deputies" and mentor them. Maybe
thats even a better long-term approach than starting to pay packaging work.
So what a about a "OSGeo Packaging group"? OSGeo Live contributors could also
be involved and this could be a place for collecting information about
packaging, different platforms and events where packagers are present.

Pirmin

Am Donnerstag, 22. März 2012, 11.49:57 schrieb Alan Boudreault:

Alex,

I also like the idea of packaging sessions to bring more contributors in
DebianGIS/UbuntuGIS, but I won't be in NA neither.

Alan

On 12-03-21 12:32 PM, Alex Mandel wrote:

I spy a GSOC project idea: Packaging automation& a guide to train new
packagers based on the automated system.
Maybe with Frank and Alan as mentors?

Should we also consider doing a packaging session at the sprint at
Foss4gNA? Alan will you be there to teach packaging for debian/ubuntu?

Thanks,
Alex

On 03/20/2012 11:35 PM, cavallini@faunalia.it wrote:

Good point, agreed fully.
Thanks for raising this out.
Ready to help of necessary.

---
http://faunalia.it/pc
Sent from mobile, sorry for being short

----- Reply message -----
Da: "Frank Warmerdam"<warmerdam@pobox.com>
A: "OSGeo-Board"<board@lists.osgeo.org>
Cc: "Alan Boudreault"<aboudreault@mapgears.com>, "Brian
Hamlin"<maplabs@light42.com>,
"osgeo4w-dev"<osgeo4w-dev@lists.osgeo.org>,<ubuntu@lists.osgeo.org>
Oggetto: [osgeo4w-dev] Binaries Packaging - A Strategic Investment
Data: mer, mar 21, 2012 07:04

Folks,

I've mentioned this before, and I don't have anything surprising to
add now. I just wanted to bump this topic.

I believe that producing good quality integrated distributions of
OSGeo
binary software for a major user platforms is strategically important
for OSGeo and would be worth an investment of moderate amounts of
money to promote.

For me two packaging efforts stick out, though I might be biased.

1) OSGeo4W - I think the Windows environment is (still?) very
important and OSGeo4W is a credible community effort to satisfy it
that could benefit from more involvement, polish and a broader
package set.

2) Debian/Ubuntu/LiveDVD - I believe that Ubuntu is today the dominant
desktop/server linux system and that the packaging efforts of the
DebianGIS, UbuntuGIS and LiveDVD groups build on one another and
provide high impact.

If board members or community members see high impact and reasonably
priced opportunities to extend these efforts with OSGeo money I hope
they will come forward with them. I'd also like to see us do more on
the OSGeo web site, with case studies, etc to promote these package
suites in a manner appropriate to their level of readiness.

I also think the MacOS environment is very important but I'm not
entirely clear on the best way of addressing that. Good ideas on
this aspect are also welcome.

Best regards,

_______________________________________________
osgeo4w-dev mailing list
osgeo4w-dev@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/osgeo4w-dev