If you want to use a GIS and you are not in an academic institution or in a company witch have special conditions or money to pay for licenses, what solutions ?
- pirated software ?
- FOSS ?
For me, the second solution:
- I can participate or have the illusion of participate in the development of the software in various ways
- when I suggest something or propose a solution, if it is interesting for the community, it is directly integrated in the next version of the software, and if not, too bad, maybe another time.
- I do not need to use Windows
- I am not subject to the obligation to use "black boxed" functions
- I don't need to upgrade by obligation
- and most important, I prefer cooperation to competition
For me, that is the Free (and not the free of charge), and I am ready to pay if it was necessary.(and I use exclusively Python, QGIS, GRASS GIS, gvSIG, OpenJump, R and Octave (free clone of Matlab), PostgreSQL/PostGIS, SQLite/Spatialite, LibreOffice, git, gitHub, etc., all Open Source, not in Windows)
Consider the gvSIG development process:
- gvSIG was started in 2003 when the Conselleria d'Infraestructures i Transports (CIT) of Valencian Country (Spain) proposed the development of a software for the management of the spatial data (as an alternative to ESRI products)
- A private enterprise (IVER Tecnologías) develop the software together with the Generalitat Valenciana and the Jaume I University of Castellón.
- It does exactly the functions required by the Community (no more, no less at the beginning)
- but given its status (Open Source), the project has been joined by other regional and national administrations, various national and international organisations, programmers, that have added what they want, moving the project forward, towards a complete GIS (with 3D now)
- and the software is available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Android (gvSIG Mini)
Is this possible with a proprietary software ?