Más del panorama bloggeril, esta vez de uno de los más reputados y visitados, James Fee, que en un párrafo deja más que claro por qué le parece más interesante una aproximación desde el Open Source que desde el software privativo (las negritas las pongo yo):

Having a group of GIS techs digitizing PDF maps that people have markedup is not cost effective for anyone. Having people remotely digitize features and be able to work with them in PostGIS, Google Earth, ArcGIS and just about any OGC complaint application is very powerful. It really comes down to using open source to make everyones job easier and doing much more than you could before with much less money. When you take out the maintenance and the licensing of server software, you can focus your money directly on the problem and solution.

El artículo vale la pena.