[Qgis-user] A new chapter in life begins

[Alessandro Pasotti]

Hi Horst,

Thank you for your email and for your contributions to the FOSS GIS
community, your story was touching and made me remember the hackfests
when we met (IIRC in Zurigo and later in Essen).

I wish you the best for the new chapters of your life!


On Thu, Jan 22, 2026 at 6:21 PM Dr. Horst Düster via QGIS-User
<qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org> 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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-- 
Alessandro Pasotti
QCooperative:  www.qcooperative.net
ItOpen:   www.itopen.it