Live GIS GSoC 2014

= OSGeo-Live Google Summer of Code ideas 2014 =

About
OSGeo-Live is a self-contained bootable DVD, USB thumb drive or Virtual Machine based on Xubuntu, that enables new users to try a wide variety of open source geospatial software without installing anything.

Ideally we like OSGeoLive projects to be installed from UbuntuGIS .deb files, as this enables the applications to be available and easily installable on Ubuntu distributions. However, to date (in 2014), only about half the applications are bundled as .deb files. In particular, most of the java based projects have not been bundled as .deb files.

.deb packaging of OSGeo projects
The idea for this project is take as many projects as possible through the process of bundling into .deb files, with a particular emphasis on solving java based projects. Ideally, the generation of the .deb files will be incorporated into the project's build process, and the .deb files will also be included into UbuntuGIS and DebianGIS baselines.

This project will be a challenge for anyone game to take it on, requiring a combination of research to identify and document existing stumbling blocks, researching of best practices in packaging, .deb packaging, liaising with projects, likely updating software, creating install and build scripts, and probably a few more things as well.

Resources

 * http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code_2014_Ideas
 * UbuntuGIS packaging: http://trac.osgeo.org/ubuntugis/#Packagers
 * 2013 .deb packaging project: http://trac.osgeo.org/ubuntugis/wiki/Proposal