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Encyclopedia of Geography

Open Source Gis

Open Source Gis Open Source GIS (OSGIS) is a family of GIS software packages that are published along with their respective source code, in contrast to the closed-source model of proprietary GIS packages. Usually, open-source software is understood to be also free software, that is, the source code is published under a free software license with the rights to run the program for any purpose, to study how the program works, to adapt it, and to redistribute copies, including modifications. These software licenses, including the license-free public domain, are evaluated and promoted by the Free Software Foundation (FSF, ) and the Open Source Initiative (OSI, ). OSGIS is the general concept of Open Source/Free Software applied to GIS software. GRASS (Geographical Resources Analysis Support System) is the earliest OSGIS, which reached production status and supported both raster and vector data. It was originally developed from 1982 to 1995 by the ...

— Markus Neteler