2010 to Onward – The Open Source Explosion
With users getting accustomed to GIS software, this has sparked a new revelation in GIS – an open source explosion. Amazing projects like QGIS are providing any user with a computer with GIS software.
Processors are now in gigahertz. Graphics cards are crisper than they’ve ever been before. We now think of GIS data storage in terabytes. It’s no longer megabytes.
GIS data has become more ubiquitous. TIGER data, Landsat satellite imagery and even LiDAR data is accessible to download for free. Online repositories like ArcGIS Online store massive amounts of spatial data. It’s a matter of quality control and fitting it for your needs.
The range of commercial GIS software products out there seem endless.
But what stands out is the big shift of GIS users building their own GIS software in an open, collaborative way. This software is made available to the public and is called open source. The big plus is: they are for public use at no cost.
Open source is becoming mainstream today. We are gradually entering an era of open source GIS software. More light is shining on QGIS than ever before. Even though, there will always be a place for commercial GIS software. Software companies like Esri provide solutions to practically any spatial problem that exists today.