README for QGIS version 1.4 'Enceladus'
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Quantum GIS (QGIS) is an Open Source Geographic Information System. The
project was born in May of 2002 and was established as a project on
SourceForge in June of the same year. We've worked hard to make GIS
software (which is traditionaly expensive commercial software) a viable
prospect for anyone with basic access to a Personal Computer.  QGIS
currently runs on most Unix platforms, Windows, and OS X. QGIS is
developed using the Qt toolkit (http://www.trolltech.com) and C++.  This
means that QGIS feels snappy to use and has a pleasing, easy to use
graphical user interface. 

QGIS aims to be an easy to use GIS, providing common functions and
features. The initial goal was to provide a GIS data viewer. QGIS has
reached that point in its evolution and is being used by many for their
daily GIS data viewing needs. QGIS supports a number of raster and
vector data formats, with new support easily added using the plugin
architecture.

QGIS is released under the GNU Public License (GPL). Devloping QGIS
under this license means that you can (if you want to) inspect and
modify the source code and guarantees that you, our happy user will
always have access to a GIS program that is free of cost and can be
freely modified.

Supported raster formats include:
  Grass
  USGS DEM
  ArcInfo binary grid
  ArcInfo ASCII grid
  ERDAS Imagine
  SDTS
  GeoTiff
  Tiff with world file

Supported vector formats include:
  ESRI Shapefiles
  PostgreSQL/PostGIS
  GRASS
  

NOTE -- Please follow the installation instructions carefully. 
After untarring the distribution, you can find the HTML version of the 
installation document in qgis/doc/index.html. The installation document is 
also available as PDF in the same directory.

HELP US --  Please submit bug reports using the QGIS bug tracker at:
            http://trac.osgeo.org/qgis/
            When reporting a bug, either login or, if you don't
            have a qgis trac, provide an email address where we can 
            request additional information.
  
SUPPORT -   You can get support in the following ways:
            1.  Using the QGIS community site at http://qgis.org
            2.  Joining the qgis-users mailing list at:
                http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
            3.  Using IRC by joining the #qgis channel on irc.freenode.net. 
                Please wait around for a response to your question as many 
                folks on the channel are doing other things and it may take a 
                while for them to notice your question.