Fun with QGIS and GIMP

ONE of the two reasons holding me back from totally shifting the city planning operations from Windows to Ubuntu was the absence of a decent (read: user-friendly, which therefore requires a GUI or graphical user interface) geographic information system (GIS).

Until yesterday, when I discovered -- via Wikipedia -- installed and got Quantum GIS (QGIS) running in my Ubuntu Hardy-powered desktop. (It's a dual-boot system, but I rarely use the Windows Vista that went with the machine these days, except when editing Powerpoint presentations for my principal.)

I'm having problems opening the QGIS website today, but installers can be accessed in the cached version of its download page.

The pictures here show how I plotted the proposed redistricting of the province using datasets available at the Naga GIS webpage, courtesy of Senen Ebio, former EDP head and a neighbor at our Grandview community in Pacol.

Together with a Google map showing Camarines Sur's terrain, I then used Ubuntu's native GIMP Image Editor to superimpose the PNG image that QGIS yielded over the terrain map.

QGIS, by the way, is also available for Windows. The last picture is from the QGIS interface installed on another computer running on a Mac-customized Windows XP Home.

But there is that remaining roadblock to the full adoption of Ubuntu in the office: my staff have gotten so used to Microsoft Office Suite they're having trouble adapting to the Open Office alternative.

It's some sort of Windows dependency syndrome, especially if it is what you've grown up to and used all your life.