Portable GIS
GIS on a USB stick.
Announcement: Portable GIS Version 3.1 is released (December 3rd 2012)! Download it here. Note this is a dropbox link, so if the link doesn’t work it’s probably because the daily download limit has been reached. Please try again tomorrow! Note also that it’s just for windows- no mac or linux versions (sorry)
Update: Check your downloaded file is OK by checking the md5 against this one
The philosophy behind this idea was to provide beginners with a ready-installed and configured stack of open source GIS tools that would run in windows without the need for emulation or a live cd. By taking out the often difficult installation and configuration, I hope to make it easier for beginners to get started with open source GIS, so they are not put off before it gets interesting and fun. Not only that, but having a fully self-contained GIS system may prove useful in a number of real-life situations.
Newly updated version 3.1 contains a self-contained installer, updated versions of all the constituent software packages, a new control panel, and improved documentation. It’s stripped down from the previous release, to keep the size of the download down and make it easier to maintain. If enough people ask for a particular package to be included I will build a new version.
The current set of software includes:
Desktop GIS packages QGIS (with GRASS plugin and QGIS Server) version 1.8
FWTools (GDAL and OGR toolkit)
Apache2 and Php5
PostgreSQL (version 9.0)/Postgis (version 1.5)
Mapserver 5.6 and 6, OpenLayers.
Python 2.7 with GDAL 1.9 libraries
Loader- for loading gml such as Ordnance Survey Mastermap into a PostgreSQL Database
Utilities- portable firefox, pdf reader and text editor
The packages and menu system are all open source, but each component has a separate license. Some of the components have been altered in order to make them drive-letter independent.
Provisoes:
This is not for production use. In order to keep end user configuration to a minimum there are a number of security holes and as such it should be used for demonstration and home use only.
It is also not “stealth GIS”- no attempt has been made to leave no trace on the host system.
Support and Assistance: