1. HostGIS Linux A MapServer-oriented Linux distribution Matthew Perry & Gregor Mosheh, HostGIS

2. What is HostGIS Linux? Slackware Linux, a complete yet minimal subset GDAL/OGR, JasPer JPEG2000, ER Mapper ECW SDK Postgres / PostGIS server MySQL server Perl, Python, PHP and MapScript for all three MapServer (of course!) MWC Web-based system administration and database administration tools Example maps and sample data In a nutshell: Everything you need to start serving web-based maps in minutes. The latest stable versions of:

3. Why HostGIS Linux? Many of the solutions are vaporware. HostGIS Linux is here now. Packages are often incompatible with your Linux system. Packages are often lacking features. Live CDs are ill-suited for being a server. A full OS is a big download, then come those packages. There are packages and distributions already. Why did we reinvent the wheel? Installing it yourself is not easy! Many, many interrelated components. Versions change often and are often incompatible. Must be installed in the correct sequence, with correct configure and compile flags, or else you have to backtrack. You wanted to include _______ but didn't know it at the time? Back to square one!

4. HostGIS Linux saves time! The download is only 220 MB, compared to 650 for most OSs. Simple installation, less than 10 minutes of interactive time. Web-based administration tools. MWC displays good-looking maps. And of course, the big one: Everything already works! HostGIS Linux is lean and mean! Only 1 GB installation, about the same as other OSs. Runs great on minimal hardware, or in VMWare. No X Windows, no desktop GIS. Other distros do that. It's really Slackware! Slackware packages work just fine.

5.  What's missing that HostGIS needs?  Input/Output formats? Utilities?  Comments and comparisons to other distributions and packages? Where do you want to go tomorrow?