QGIS — QGIS Workshop v1.0.0 documentation

http://www.qgisworkshop.org/html/workshop/qgis.html#what-is-qgis

QGIS¶
What is QGIS?¶

Quantum GIS (QGIS) is an open-source desktop GIS product that you helps you visualize, manage, edit, analyze, and compose maps with geographic data. QGIS runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, and Windows and supports vector, raster, and database formats. QGIS is licensed under the GNU Public License. QGIS is written in C++, and its GUI uses the Qt library. QGIS allows integration of plugins developed using either C++ or Python.
History¶

The Quantum GIS project was officially born in May of 2002 when coding began. The idea was conceived in February 2002 when Gary Sherman began looking for a GIS viewer for Linux that was fast and supported a wide range of data stores. That, coupled with an interest in coding a GIS application led to the creation of the project. In the beginning Quantum GIS was established as a project on SourceForge in June 2002. The first code was checked into CVS on SourceForge on Saturday July 6, 2002, and the first, mostly non-functioning release came on July 19, 2002. The first release supported only PostGIS layers.

It became an incubator project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) in 2004 and Version 1.0 was released in January 2009.
Project Layout¶

Quantum GIS is a community driven project. The web site, the source code (SVN), the bug tracker and the mailing lists are hosted and partly maintained at OSGeo.org. The work of the QGIS project is managed by a Project Steering Committee (PSC) made up of an international team of developers and GIS users who each have a specific area of responsibility. The steering committee is divided into four basic roles: Development, Release Management, Community Resources and Finance & Marketing.

Contributions in the form of code contributions, bug fixes, bug reports, contributed documentation, advocacy and supporting other users on our mailing lists and the QGIS Forum. If you are interested in actively supporting the project, you can find more information under the development menu and on the QGIS Wiki. The project also accespts financial contributions in the form of sponsoring and funding.
Basic Usage¶

    QGIS lets you browse, edit and create a variety of vector and raster formats, including ESRI shapefiles, spatial data in PostgreSQL/PostGIS, GRASS vectors and rasters, or GeoTiff
    You can create customised plugins and GIS enabled applications using Python or C++
    Maps can be compiled for printing using the print composer
    QGIS supports plugins to do things like import of delimited text data, download tracks, routes, and waypoints from your GPS or visualize OGC WMS and WFS layers