QGIS

Quantum GIS (QGIS) is a free and open-source GIS software, meaning that it can be edited by users all over the world to create an ever-evolving, rich software system. QGIS has many of the same capabilities as commercial GIS software, processes are just performed a bit differently. Users can run QGIS software on Mac, PC, or Linux computers. At any given time, there are usually two versions of QGIS available: the latest release, which has the richest features, but may still contain some bugs, and the long-term release (LTR), which is the most stable version of the software, but may lack some newer tools and features.

QGIS has built in tools, such as Clipping or Reprojecting, as well as extensional tools, that can be accessed by using plugins.

Built In Tools

QGIS Tools: These are tools that are developed along with the QGIS software.

GDAL Tools: Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) tools work to primarily translate data between different formats (ie. Vector to Raster)

GRASS Tools: Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) tools are primilarily used to conduct remote sensing on raster imagery

SAGA Tools: System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses (SAGA) tools run spatial algorithms for modeling and more advanced spatial statistics

Plugin Tools

Plugins are additonal toolboxes and functionalities that can be added into QGIS to perform processes that may not be availabe with the built in tools. Plugins are created by developers and organizations worldwide. The "Ready to Use" plugins can be easily accessed through the Plugins tab within QGIS, or users can browse all plugins and import them as zip files.