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OSGeoLive archive is online!
The OSGeoLive team has published an archive of all prior OSGeoLive docs, both online [1], and backed up in source control [2].
The archive provides an important historical record of geospatial development over the last decade.
It contains all OSGeoLive documentation from 2.0 to the latest 13.0 version. The search continues for the 1.0 release! From memory, it didn't contain any docs.
You are invited to travel into history to the beginning Version 2.0 [4] when OSGeoLive was called the "Arramagong Live DVD" and only contained 18 projects including GRASS GIS, Quantum QGIS, PostGIS, MapServer and GeoServer. A DVD was enthusiastically received by FOSS4G 2009 conference attendees in Sydney, Australia.
Major version releases have aligned with the international conference for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS4G). In many years we also put out a minor release, to align with FOSS4G regional and local events.
OSGeoLive is handed out at FOSS4G events and is used in many of the FOSS4G workshop.
The theme of desktop backgrounds of major versions has been inspired by the location of the international FOSS4G conference, adopting a backdrop of the African savanna in Del es Salaam, and embracing the persona of Robin Hood in Nottingham. Why did we jump from 7.0 to 7.9 (instead of following convention and selecting 7.5)? It was to honour one of OSGeo's heros, Arnulf Christl, who also goes by the nickname of "seven-of-nine".
OSGeoLive is very popular. Version 12.0 had 21,000 downloads and the actual version 13.0 had 11,000 downloads 13.0 in the last 7 months. Source: [5]
When packaging, we prioritise stability over cutting edge, quality over quantity, and end user experience over individual project needs.
Software which has lost an active community is retired and new projects added. Surprisingly, the number of projects on OSGeoLive has remained relatively static - hovering around 40 to 50.
Seth Girvin came up with the idea of the archive and worked on it in 2019. It was a challenge to find older versions. Thanks a lot to Seth for the initiative. Thanks also to Cameron Shorter for the support, Angelos Tzozos for setting up the repo and Regina Obe from SAC for setting up the subdomain.
I hope you enjoy the journey into the OSGeoLive archive!
About OSGeoLive
OSGeoLive [3] is a Lubuntu based distribution of Geospatial Open Source Software, available via a Virtual Machine, USB, and Live DVD. You can use OSGeoLive to try a wide variety of open source geospatial software without installing anything.
The OSGeoLive team
[1] https://live-archive.osgeo.org/
[2] https://github.com/OSGeo/OSGeoLive-doc-archive
