Open GIS World !

Few weeks back I was assigned an evaluation work of available Open Source GIS engines. My key interest was to check & compare the features of Web based Open GIS engines. I downloaded few of them, configured and checked different properties. After fighting hard in configuring new engines and checking the features, I started reading articles, blogs and other online data about other available open engines.

I looked at :

1. Featureserver
2. FWTools
3. GeoRss
4. GeoServer
5. GRASS
6. MapGuide
7. Mapserver
8. uDig
9. QGis
10. etc

After thorough assessment and evaluation, I was in LOVE !! And, all of my requirements are fulfilled by MAPSERVER.

The analysis work proved the superiority of MapServer over others on following grounds:

1. Intelligent Line Labeling (over curves).
2. Partial Labeling.
3. Intelligent Point Labeling (avoiding overlaps)
4. Rendering Speed.
5. Good documentation.
6. Works with Multiple Platforms – Windows, Linux.
7. Support for multiple data formats.
8. Easy configuration.