Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Quantum GIS
There's nothing I can say that does Quantum GIS (QGIS) justice. This package can do just
about anything. It's on par with applications such as ESRI and MapInfo, fully open source,
and officially supported by the OSGeo Foundation.
The main application is written using Python, and as a result will run on Linux, Mac OS,
Windows, and anything else that supports Python in a desktop environment.
Now on version 1.8.0, the development of Quantum GIS has built strength upon strength in
the relatively short time it's been available. The extension API exposed by the system is
simply amazing, and can be customized at every level—from re-engineering the main UI, to
plug-ins that expose things like live GPS tracking, to the creation of brand new vector layers
by applying algorithms to different layers in a package.
It comes standard in OSGeo4W, a collection of open-source geospatial software for
Windows, along with Grass, MSYS, OpenEV, and many others. Backed by tools such as
GDAL, pg2mysql, and many others, the only limit I've found to this package is your
imagination.
Quantum is my desktop tool of choice when dealing with all the different types of data
available. It can handle Postgres and all other major databases with the same ease that it
imports and exports just about every known GIS file format on the planet.
It's also one of the few packages that can import and export Google Earth (KML) files for
direct use with projects that make use of Google's mapping API. The current version now
also includes a handy geospatial file explorer, which means you can browse and view your
local file system resources without needing to fire up the full-blown GUI.
In the following screenshot, you can see QGIS loaded with a multilayer vector map (an
Ordnance Survey Strategi map of the U.K.) zoomed in on Newcastle upon Tyne City Centre:
