QGIS is growing of age - continously. This project is now prooving to be a useful tool for everyday GIS work. Working in a governmental organization where we have more than 5 ArcGIS licenses from ESRI we have experience in using this software. Working with ESRI products certainly provides good solutions. Unfortunately this is not good enough.
Cost is one thing, but the sheer complexity of their licensing scheme is enough to make anyone dizzy. QGIS now provides a lot of tools for free. You can edit, present and generate complex spatial data sets with the software. A host of plug-ins will let you perform tasks at zero cost which would have you knocking at ESRI's doors for a license upgrade in ten minutes. It interacts with the opensource mapserver. It allows you to use PostGIS data. Using ArcGIS for these tasks is like breathing under water.
QGIS might not do it all. But it still covers the basics and then some. It is now ripe for daily use and I recommend it. I promise you, the next protected area map will be made only using QGIS. I look forward to it!
You will find the software here:
So you think QGIS is a toy? NOPE!
By: Ragnvald Larsen on: Thu 17 of Dec., 2009 20:40 CET (273 Reads)|
|
Today I found myself struggling at work. I had to calculate the area of a suggested protected area - land area only. This was in Norway. We have a couple of floating Spatial Analyst licenses at work. Looking for the right tool in ArcGIS toolbox is no fun. If you are not running a cracked version you are often exposed to your inferior license. QGIS saved the day! |