[Qgis-user] A new chapter in life begins

[Nigel Berjak - General]

Thank you Horst for your history and inputs. I wish my dad, us being in 
South Africa, who started his journey around 1986 after moving partially 
away from Statistics and Computer Science lecturing, could have been 
part of the early journey. In those times with no internet, he wrote his 
own GIS, printer drivers etc., but found no support locally and so ESRI 
was adopted as their sales force was second to none. He would have 
really enjoyed being part of working with the QGIS family.

---
Regards,

Nigel Berjak
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

On 2026-01-22 19:12, Dr. Horst Düster via QGIS-User wrote:
> Dear colleagues
> 
> After 38 years of geoinformatics, geographic information systems, and 
> everything related to them, I am now retiring from professional life at 
> the end of January and starting a new chapter in my life. It has been 
> an eventful time, which began at ESRI in Kranzberg near Munich in 1988. 
> While working on my dissertation at the University of Bern, I quickly 
> came across open source software and open source GIS. Much to the 
> surprise of my colleagues, the GIS of my choice at the time was GRASS. 
> It allowed me to do everything I needed for my work. A series of 
> fortunate circumstances led to FOSS4G becoming the focus of my work 
> from then on. In Solothurn, starting in 1999, all doors were open for 
> my FOSS4G ideas, as the canton had decided on a Linux strategy and the 
> necessary financial resources were available.
> 
> During this time, projects such as UMN MapServer played a key role – 
> pragmatic, powerful, and developed by an international community. The 
> big gap in the software stack was desktop GIS. Around 2003, I 
> discovered Quantum GIS and was very impressed by its potential, even 
> though it was still in its infancy and didn't offer much functionality. 
> But if you believe in the small, it can become big. Lucky circumstances 
> played a role here too, because Marco Hugentobler, one of the core 
> developers of Quantum GIS, was based very close to me in Zurich. Now I 
> had money available and a developer at my disposal. This laid the 
> foundation for the successful development of Quantum GIS, which later 
> became QGIS. Marco was able to develop all the functions in Quantum GIS 
> that were necessary for the canton of Solothurn's work—data analysis, 
> symbolization, digitization, and map production. The world was open to 
> a free desktop GIS. Today, QGIS is an indispensable part of 
> geoinformatics, but back then we were laughed at.
> 
> My special thanks go to the people who made this journey possible: the 
> developers, who often worked behind the scenes with great perseverance 
> and passion; the colleagues in administration, universities, and 
> offices who had the courage to break new ground; and the few who took 
> responsibility early on and inspired others to follow suit—in 
> Switzerland and around the world. Without this personal commitment, 
> without trust, and without sometimes controversial discussions, much of 
> this would not have come about.
> 
> What has accompanied me all these years has not only been the technical 
> excellence of these tools, but above all the community behind them: 
> open, critical, helpful, and always ready to share knowledge. This free 
> culture has shaped my work and my commitment—and it has made FOSS4G 
> strong.
> 
> With great gratitude for all the encounters, discussions, and joint 
> projects worldwide, I am now taking a step back from my very active 
> professional life. The FOSS4G community is in an excellent position 
> today, and I am convinced that it will continue on its successful path. 
> The current challenges of our time—the many unhealthy dependencies that 
> we saw early on and which are now increasingly being recognized by 
> decision-makers—urge us to be vigilant in the face of growing 
> authoritarianism and nationalist tendencies, which are regaining 
> strength in many parts of the world.
> 
> And I will continue to be part of the community, because I am not 
> retiring from life. Who knows where we will cross paths, what happy 
> circumstances will enrich our lives in the future, and what 
> contribution I will make in the future? We will see. Perhaps one or two 
> of my companions will read this text and remember moments we shared. 
> That would make me very happy.
> 
> Thank you for everything. It is a great pleasure and honor for me to be 
> part of this development.
> 
> See you soon, yours
> 
> Horst Düster
> horst.duester at kappasys.ch
> 
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