But as for Open Source options:

First, the FOSS4G community is doing a pretty good job of not duplicating each-others effort too much — so there is no one-stop complete package. People are putting together the pieces from different projects.

MapServer, for instance, isn’t really a server (though it has a cgi app in the standard distribution). It is mostly a map renderer — it can be used with any number of servers and clients. A number of other projects wrap MapServer with a variety of server and client solutions. MapServer keeps improving too — the latest release uses the AGG renderer for what should be very nice anti-aliased maps.

The big news at this years FOSS4G is OpenLayers — it is a very cool web client package, and is begin used in more and more comprehensive systems. With it’s new client-side editing of features, and MetaCarta’s new FeatureServer, some very cool apps are going to be built.

CampToCamp’s CartoWeb is very nice — a very easy, complete package for putting maps of your data up on the web. Their version 4 (not yet released) looks like it will be even better, based on OpenLayers, of course!

As for MapGuide — I don’t know much about it, but I did see a demo of using it to pass “extruded” shape files to Google Earth for cool 3-d renderings of buildings – very nifty. And it clearly does lots more.

MapGuide+Fusion looks very promising as well.

Check out the FOSS4G web site — there is a LOT of cool stuff going on!

As for the ESRI options — I’m no expert, and I’d like to hear more, but a few thoughts:

ArcGIS Server: It looks powerful and flexible, but very heavy weight — SOAP, JAVA or .NET — lot’s more work that writing a a quick Python or PHP script.

ArcGIS Explorer: not really a web app. And you can do much of this with QGIS or other open-source desktop apps, without the licensing and platform limitations. The key to Open Source is freedom — not price. Whether that matters to you for a given application is up to you.

Arc GIS Online — this does looks pretty promising — obviously an answer to Google Maps and Google Earth (which aren’t Open Source either). NASA’s World Wind does some of this, but it’s not up to Google Earth standards (yet!).

“In fact, the Open Source solutions blow ESRI away when it comes to web mapping — I’ve NEVER seen an ArcIMS site that I liked. ”

… ok ArcIMS is pretty old though. What OpenSource web mapping thingy blows ESRI’s current modern products like ArcGIS Server, ArcGIS Explorer, ArcGIS Online, and ArcWeb Services with a Flex UI out of the water?

I mean, there are some that blow some ESRI prices out of the water (well, unless you are talking about ArcGIS Explorer + SDK for a geobrowser, some of ArcGIS Online, and some uses of ArcWeb services which are free). I know there are open source things that cost way less than ArcGIS Server, but they also do way less. I would like to know which open source web mapping products blow ESRI’s modern stuff (not decade+ old ArcIMS) out of the water, so I can go check them out. I don’t think mapguide or mapserver quite quality as “blow out of the water”. Are there others?

Personally I wish James would post again. I don’t like that picture of that Mai Tai mocking me ever time I come here.

QGIS is a licensed to use on the desktop. I’m not sure what you are getting at here. I think James’ post was quite clear. The juxtaposition of ArcInfo and QGIS is the whole point of what that company was doing.

“has either an ArcInfo or QGIS license on their desk”

The GPL is not something yo have on your machine like you have an ArcINfo licence. I felt putting them together in a sentence like that was misleading — yes you have to abide by the restrictions of the GPL if you want use QGIS but you don’t need to buy anything, negotiate with anyone, etc. In fact, the GPL puts no restrictions on your use and sharing of the software at all — except that if you distribute it, you must make the source available too. It is so different from a license from ESRI that I really thought a point needed to be made.

Not to nitpick, but QGIS does have a license, GPL. I think you are a tad confused on the point of FOSS.

No one has a QGIS “license” on their desk – they have QGIS on their machine, and they can give it out to whomever they want, whenever the want, etc. — that’s half (but not all, but any means) of the point of Open Source.

Now to address some of the other comments in this thread:

“”"
a sophisticated enterprise system that calls for some level of ubiquity across the organization and associated business partners I haven’t seen anything deliver outside the typical ESRI stack
“”"
Sure, that’s true — but two issues:

1)does everyone need the comprehensive system — generally not.
2) Why does the whole system have to come from the same place and/or vendor?

What matters is that the tools do their job and can work together. OK, ESRI really is about the only option for a comprehensive mapping + analysis + everything else desktop GIS — but does that mean you need to use ArcIMS for your web mapping solution? No, it doesn’t. In fact, the Open Source solutions blow ESRI away when it comes to web mapping — I’ve NEVER seen an ArcIMS site that I liked. Same applies to SDE for your database — PostGIS is an excellent solution, and may integrate better with non-geo data.

Even on the desktop — for a regular user, ArcGIS is great — lots of power and flexibility — but for a casual user, QGIS (and others) are far easier to use, and can be customized to be even easier for a specific application.

“”"
the cost of the cots software is distributed over a wider market theoretically bringing the price down. Building anything from scratch and solely supporting it through its life cycle will cost you dearly.
“”"
Using open source is hardly “building from scratch” — in fact, it’s all about distributing the labor, and more efficiently than proprietary solutions — QGIS leverages PostGIS, GRASS, GDAL, etc, etc, etc. And Open Source developers doesn’t have to waste a lot of money on marketing and patent attorneys…

“”"
qualified GIS staff with solid professional character is uncommon at best due to demand. Let’s face it, most position descriptions call for nearly impossible credentials.
“”"
Having “used” ArcMap hardly makes one a well qualified spatial analyst — I don’t know how many extensive Arc users I’ve talked to that hardly understand what a projection is. The truth is that yes, good GIS folks are hard to come by, but really knowing GIS takes more than knowing what buttons to click to accomplish a few tasks. Anyone that really does know GIS will be able to use different tools pretty easily (and, let’s face it, many of the Open Source tools model themselves after ESRI anyway). It’s similar to finding a good programmer — someone that has thrown together a web site with PHP is hardly a well qualified programmer. I have an analogy from when I learned to drive : I didn’t know how to drive a stick shift until I had learned to drive more than one different car, and I didn’t really know until I had driven a few cars and a truck or two. The same goes for programming. Anyone that has only used one language is not a well qualified programmer, and anyone that has only used one GIS system is not a well qualified spatial analyst.

“”"
ESRI still provides that support for me (at a price, i know) when my skill-set reaches the ceiling.
“”"
Why does the fact that you can use an Open Source product for free make people think that they can’t get support? You get GREAT support on mailing lists etc, and if you need more than that, FOSS4G was crawling with consultants that would be glad to support you for a fee — many of them being the people that wrote the code. How often do you get an ESRI tech support person that wrote any of the code in Arc? Or any code at all?

“”"
I would LOVE to stay cutting edge in our development, but how do you explain ‘open source’ to a 62 year old clerk up in the Assessor’s office when she wants to know why you’ve changed everything again?
“”"

Don’t make a change, either to Open Source, or to the latest commercial product in order to stay “cutting edge”. Make a change because the needs of your users have changed, or because you can provide them with a better service. When you make that change, choose the best solution — and I’ll bet that clerk doesn’t want to go to ESRI training to look at a map (and maybe manipulate it a bit). As an example, there was a presentation at FOSS4G from a guy who had developed a tool in Arc that let county officials see what the expected effects of different zoning rules might be. It was a hit, and all sort of folks wanted to use it, but whoops! who’s got ESRI licences and knows how to use it? So he re-did it with QGIS and GRASS — same analysis, but simpler interface, and he can give it out to anyone — you can even run it right off a cd. Your clerk may appreciate that.

“”
Has anyone published a book or whitepaper or whatever that concisely summarizes Open Source GIS?
“”"
It’s pretty much impossible to concisely summarize — it’s large, and it’s changing constantly. Checking out the FOSS4G web site is a pretty good way to get an overview though.

“”"
The students are not too worried about other software packages, since they mainly see ESRI products in job announcements.
“”"
Both the students and the people posting job announcements are being very short sighted — students should be trying to become spatial analysts, not ESRI button-pushers, and the folks hiring people should be looking for “smart people that get things done” not folks that know ArcGIS version whatever. I know I’d much rather hire someone that had hacked on an open-source project than someone that had only used ESRI products –even if I was hiring them to do stuff with ESRI.

“”"
On the other side of the stick it would be nice if opensource had more official training courses to change the perception of no help there.
“”"
You’re right that it’s only a perception. But I hope things like FOSS4G and osGeo, and OGS are helping with that.

-Chris

I agree with the guys at the bar regarding finding a sustainable mix of GIS technologies.
1. Quality data editing, analysis, and cartographic output with ArcInfo
2.Use open platforms for low-tech reader desktops — if at all (see next bullet)
3. General dissemination using open web mapping with current web application methods (i.e. not ArcIMS)
4. As ESRI finally moves towards gis-data standards and open platforms – open storage platforms will be a no brainer

BTW: As a long-time professional GISer – I left my old job because GIS employment couldn’t keep pace with my salary potential. Now I’m out in the non-gis IT world; it’s interesting to see how well corporations get along without GIS; of course – if they knew what they were missing …

Lastly, it’s also intere$ting to see the few corporate applications that were built around ArcIMS (4x and 9x) and don’t want or need to go to ArcGIS Server.