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I had to learn ArcGIS for a class. Ugh. That application brings new meaning to "feature creep". They make their money off people who can't "afford" open source

by fixxer 13y ago

I had to learn ArcGIS for a class. Ugh. That application brings new meaning to "feature creep". They make their money off people who can't "afford" open source (ie. institutions & gov).

fixxer 13y ago
When I worked for a billion dollar hedge fund, we used open source code and hired great open source developers. When I left and returned to academia, all I deal with is ArcGIS, Microsoft, and Matlab. These are the tools you use when money is tight. Open source is a luxury.
- ww520 13y ago
  That actually is very insightful. We developers love open sources because of the deep customization and the breeding edge they offer. Ordinary people can't use them since they don't have the know-how. ArcGIS, Microsoft, and folks make a killing catering to these people's needs.
  - nraynaud 13y ago
    I would say no in the case of geography. Qgis is a UI disaster as much as Arcgis. Where you are right, is that they sell people to install it for you, teach you, and very often, actually use the software for you (I have seen more than once).
    - fixxer 13y ago
      I do most GIS viz through the browser (client-side scripting + PostGIS + ad hoc servers). Took a while to get up to speed, but it feels so good being able to scale projects quickly and not rely on Esri. As for math, I generally keep it on the command-line.
- mjn 13y ago
  I assume it varies by institution and field, but with the decline of centralized IT in universities, I'm seeing more open-source in academia, because the infrastructure and budget to buy and administer site licenses for commercial tools no longer exists. Even a mere 10 years ago, everything would've been done on either the department Unix server, or a centrally managed Windows desktop install, and both of those came with the whole range of Maple, Matlab, Sicstus, etc. licenses. But nowadays I have a Debian server in the server room I administer myself, and a laptop I also administer myself. I could buy a Matlab license for my server, but it's basically up to me, so I probably won't. The other shift is that open-source tools seem to have been slowly been chipping away at the incumbents in statistical software. People used to use SAS and SPSS and that kind of thing, or commercial AI software from the likes of Salford and Symbolics, but now everyone I know uses R, stuff from MLOSS [1], and Weka. This could be local to CS/AI, though; I do get the impression that engineering departments love Matlab. [1] http://jmlr.org/mloss/ http://jmlr.org/mloss/

by fixxer 13y ago

I had to learn ArcGIS for a class. Ugh. That application brings new meaning to "feature creep". They make their money off people who can't "afford" open source (ie. institutions & gov).

fixxer 13y ago

When I worked for a billion dollar hedge fund, we used open source code and hired great open source developers. When I left and returned to academia, all I deal with is ArcGIS, Microsoft, and Matlab. These are the tools you use when money is tight. Open source is a luxury.

ww520 13y ago
That actually is very insightful. We developers love open sources because of the deep customization and the breeding edge they offer. Ordinary people can't use them since they don't have the know-how. ArcGIS, Microsoft, and folks make a killing catering to these people's needs.
- nraynaud 13y ago
  I would say no in the case of geography. Qgis is a UI disaster as much as Arcgis. Where you are right, is that they sell people to install it for you, teach you, and very often, actually use the software for you (I have seen more than once).
  - fixxer 13y ago
    I do most GIS viz through the browser (client-side scripting + PostGIS + ad hoc servers). Took a while to get up to speed, but it feels so good being able to scale projects quickly and not rely on Esri. As for math, I generally keep it on the command-line.
mjn 13y ago
I assume it varies by institution and field, but with the decline of centralized IT in universities, I'm seeing more open-source in academia, because the infrastructure and budget to buy and administer site licenses for commercial tools no longer exists. Even a mere 10 years ago, everything would've been done on either the department Unix server, or a centrally managed Windows desktop install, and both of those came with the whole range of Maple, Matlab, Sicstus, etc. licenses. But nowadays I have a Debian server in the server room I administer myself, and a laptop I also administer myself. I could buy a Matlab license for my server, but it's basically up to me, so I probably won't. The other shift is that open-source tools seem to have been slowly been chipping away at the incumbents in statistical software. People used to use SAS and SPSS and that kind of thing, or commercial AI software from the likes of Salford and Symbolics, but now everyone I know uses R, stuff from MLOSS [1], and Weka. This could be local to CS/AI, though; I do get the impression that engineering departments love Matlab. [1] http://jmlr.org/mloss/ http://jmlr.org/mloss/