QGIS is built on top of, and standard installs include, broadly-used open-source GIS format and projection conversion libraries GDAL and proj.

Gary Sherman began the development of Quantum GIS in early 2002, and it became an incubator project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation in 2007.

GDAL, GRASS GIS, PostGIS, and PostgreSQL are also recommended, as they provide access to additional data formats.

[10] As of 2017[update], QGIS is available for multiple operating systems including Mac OS X, Linux, Unix, and Microsoft Windows.

[citation needed] QGIS is maintained by volunteer developers who regularly release updates and bug fixes.

[12] QGIS enables users to visualize their data using maps, charts, and diagrams while customizing the presentation with a variety of symbology choices.

The capabilities for geographical analysis provided by QGIS include buffer construction, spatial querying, and geoprocessing.