[Qgis-user] QGIS vs ArcGIS in Education and Practice

[Nicolas Cadieux]

Hi,

This is a good question! My answer would be that students have a better chance of having a job if the learn GIS and not a software.  The software is only a tool!  If they have an ArcGIS licence at the university and can use it year round with the university, they could learn with that.

My experience is that afterwards, they will either pirate the software or abandons GIS because they cannot pay for the software.  Also, more and more students are on Macs and ArcGIS will not work unless you have a dual boot, a virtual PC or a online licence.

Also, if you want to just use a software as a technician and make GIS research,  you can use ArcGIS.  If you want a really good paying job and want to be able learn how to develop software and develop GIS, then QGIS or OpenSource is the way to go!

To think that learning GIS = learning a software is short sighted.  Would you trust a statistician if all he learned in university is how to use a particular software or would you prefer someone who really knows what statistics are all about???

Nicolas




> Le 15 déc. 2016 à 14:18, Markus Weidenbach [via OSGeo.org] <ml-node+s1560n5300057h28 at n6.nabble.com> a écrit :
> 
> Dear List,
> 
> I was asked to give a 5 days international GIS training course at the university and proposed to do it with QGIS. The program leader finally insisted on doing it with ArcGIS arguing  that the students had better chances to find a job knowing ArcGIS rather than QGIS. This argumentation does not reflect my long professional experience as a GIS consultant at all!
> But how can I proof that knowing QGIS is the better choice for young GIS professionals than ArcGIS (or at least that both systems are equally suited)? 
> Does anybody know any official numbers of GIS users worldwide or on the worldwide application of QGIS over ArcGIS?
> 
> I know the Master thesis from Boku Vienna (https://geoobserver.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/arcgis-vs-qgis/) but it is focused on a technical comparison of both systems only.
> Also the link https://www.g2crowd.com/grid_report/documents/gis-winter-2016-report is not really helpful because it is based on some 40 reviews only and therefore not representative.
> I really need to know some proven facts on the number of global QGIS users and renown companies using QGIS worldwide.
> 
> Thanks for your help in advance,
> Markus
>   
> -- 
> Dr. Markus Weidenbach 
> landConsult.de 
> Geographical Information Management 
> and Environmental Planning 
> D-77815 Bühl 
> Germany 
> e.mail see: http://landConsult.de
> 
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