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> FOSS GIS software is pretty good but suffers from the usual lack of budget. FOSS GIS is incredible these days. You can do everything in open source - it just
by twelvechairs 6y ago
> FOSS GIS software is pretty good but suffers from the usual lack of budget.
FOSS GIS is incredible these days. You can do everything in open source - it just sometimes requires a bit of work. Between qGIS (+SAGA/Grass/etc.), postGIS, python tooling like GeoPandas, leaflet/cesium, etc. there's plenty of tools for different things outside the ESRI ecosystem, you just have to learn to use them. This is a long way from the dark ages 10+ years ago when much of this capability was closed source or via some ridiculously complex text interface of GRASS.
ESRI's market dominance on GIS analysis is still a big thing though but only really a hangover from the days when ArcGIS had much more capability and lock in coroporate training was a thing. Now qGIS has essentially most of the same capability, but ESRI's corporate training structures etc. are still there to some extent. It is losing its stranglehold though, especially amongst GIS 'dabblers' who don't want to sign up and lock in to a massive corporate account for whom the ESRI older-style value proposition isn't really there. qGIS is even an accepted option for local government these days in many places.
Geospatial is both complex and diverse though. There's a lot of industries there and while there's big easy simple 2d GIS markets in mining, government zoning and military, there's also a lot of other stuff going on and its all moving fast. 3d, temporal data, drone photography, lidar and satellite etc. There's lots of innovation happening there right now and new ESRI monoliths being built.
- zhdc1 6y agoI can't think of another library that has had as much of an impact on a niche field as GDAL.
- ScalaFan 6y agoWhat does FOSS GIS software have to do in order to compete against ESRI? Or which packages have the best chance to? For example, few consider going with Oracle anymore now that you have PostgreSQL but that took a long time. So, looking perhaps as far as 10 years, which FOSS GIS software might even have a shot to start displacing ESRI in the future?
- twelvechairs 6y agoFrom my perspective at least theres a few main sides. From least to most ESRI-dominant: - Web - ESRI never had a major horse in this race. Google Maps is still there but more common now is Leaflet and Cesium for 3D is basically the only option. Both Leaflet and Cesium are FOSS. - Server - As you say postGIS is now the industry standard - Programming - There's some people using ArcPy if you are in the ESRI ecosystem but the plethora of FOSS libraries out there are probably bigger in scope and fit together better than ESRI. PyQGIS is another option but in my experience not as heavily used as other open source libraries (all of which are based on GDAL, OGC standards and the Java Topology Suite) - Desktop analysis - This is ESRI's core stranglehold and I think qGIS is now a competitive option for most users (certainly it has most of the core functionality) however there's a lot of inertia to move from big companies especially those that want ongoing external support/training.