Quantum GIS

Quantum GIS (QGIS) is a user friendly Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) that runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, and Windows. QGIS supports vector, raster, and database formats. QGIS is licensed under the GNU General Public License. QGIS lets you browse and create map data on your computer. It supports many common spatial data formats (e.g. ESRI ShapeFile, geotiff). QGIS supports plugins to do things like display tracks from your GPS. QGIS is Open Source software and its free of cost (download here). We welcome contributions from our user community in the form of code contributions, bug fixes, bug reports, contributed documentation, advocacy and supporting other users on our mailing lists and forums. Financial contributions are also welcome.

Newsflash

Quantum GIS Version 0.11.0 has been released. It is available in source form, and as binary executables for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and GNU/Linux. All versions can be obtained from our download page. If the version for your platform is not available please check back in a day or two as some packages are still being built.

A quick start introduction to GIS

Tyler Mitchell, regular visitor on #qgis IRC channel has written a nice introduction to what GIS is all about on his weblog. If you are looking to get a grip on the basic concepts of GIS, its well worth a read!