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

[Erik Meerburg]

Markus,

Imho, especially at a university you shouldn't teach specific software 
at all. Teach the students spatial thinking, generic geospatial tools 
and how (and why!) they work, knowing how to tackle a problem with (any) 
GIS, and leave the software choice open to the students, where you as a 
teacher can can offer to help them in two or even three different 
specific brands.

Any university that prescribes specific software where more then one 
(good) option is available should be ashamed of itself. Think of it as a 
Car University that only teaches Ford-specific things. No matter how you 
look at it, that is bad. Even if they would promote QGIS or Open Source 
GIS as a whole that way, it would still be bad because you would not be 
tought about alternatives. Well, maybe that's one for the future ;-).

Okay, one exception maybe: if the training includes writing new plugins 
or other extras to an existing software project. In that case, 
prescribing to build that for that specific project seems fine to me. 
but if it's about *using *GIS, ah well. Think I've made my point clear 
enough.

So, maybe I'm pushing a bit away from the choice between Arc and Q, but 
you might consider the case of doing (at least) both.

Erik.


Op 15-12-2016 om 20:07 schreef Markus Weidenbach:
> 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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-- 
Erik Meerburg Directeur Geo Academie (06) 2816 7631 erik at geo-academie.nl 
/Op 1 april 2016 start Kwaliteit in Webservices weer Alle ins & outs 
over geo op het web in 10 vrijdagen!/
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