A Concise Guide to Open Source GIS Software

I ran across a more diligent attempt to collect a list together than my own meagre attempt. It is here: http://opensourcegis.org/

This page contains my notes on what I am interested in.

Map servers

GeoServer

http://geoserver.org/

I've been playing with GeoServer lately so it has its own page: GeoServer My notes from FOSS4G 2007 say that it can use both ArcSDE and PostGIS as data sources.

Comments: (copied from their site)

"GeoServer supports WFS-T and WMS open protocols from the OGC to produce JPEG, PNG, SVG, KML/KMZ, GML, PDF, Shapefiles and more. More information on specific features of GeoServer can be found here, and some samples of GeoServer in action are in the gallery.

"GeoServer is built on Geotools, the same Java toolkit that udig uses. GeoServer is a truly open community, with a well documented and modular codebase, so don't hesitate to get involved."

MapGuide

Current Version: 2.0.0 is in beta

Home: http://mapguide.osgeo.org/

Comments: (copied from their page)

"MapGuide Open Source is a web-based platform that enables users to quickly develop and deploy web mapping applications and geospatial web services. MapGuide features an interactive viewer that includes support for feature selection, property inspection, map tips, and operations such as buffer, select within, and measure. MapGuide includes an XML database for managing content, and supports most popular geospatial file formats, databases, and standards. MapGuide can be deployed on Linux or Windows, supports Apache and IIS web servers, and offers extensive PHP, .NET, Java, and JavaScript APIs for application development. MapGuide Open Source is licensed under the LGPL."

MapServer

Current version: 6.2

Home: http://mapserver.org/

Standards

WFS WMS

Map server front ends

By front end, I mean it's the part you see when you go to a map - based web site. It is usually Javascript code that runs in your browser.

OpenLayers and Leaflet are the most popular open source projects right now.

mapbender( http://mapbender3.org/) is framework implemented as a combination of PHP and Javascript. It uses Openlayers.

Cartoweb.http://www.cartoweb.org/ The demos have a very traditional GIS look. Even has the ArcIMS page load progress bar.

Database Backends

MySQL PostgreSQL/Postgis

Desktop GIS

The one I use currently is QGIS also known as Quantum GIS

When you install OSGEO4W it asks if you want to install OpenEV and Grass and uDig.

gvSIG Both desktop and mobile versions are available.

um. The Brazillian one? ... what was it called?

GPS

Data management

QLandkarte http://www.qlandkarte.org The desktop program (Qlandkarte GT) is for supporting mapping for GPS devices, including Garmins like my eTrex. It now has drivers that can directly talk to some Garmin devices.

It's written in C++ using QT4 and OpenGL.

Navigation

FoxtrotGPS and TangoGPS

Navit

QLandarte M is the mobile version of QLandkarte

Utilities

gpsbabel -- I use this command line utility regularly, both to transfer data between a computer and a GPS receiver and to convert between GPS data formats, it is very handy.

Other SDK's and Toolkits

name	language	requires
FDO
OGR/GDAL	C	Proj4
GeoTools	Java	JTS	http://geotools.codehaus.org/
Grass	C
JTS	Java
OpenDMTP Open Device Monitoring and Tracking Protocol
Proj4	C
SharpMap	C#