mr_rusty_shackleford

They have plug-ins for web tiles, and you can connect to the ArcGIS map services. It has a terminal, but I don’t use that function much. I generally do all data manipulation and prep using Python and postGIS, and use Q as a visualization and editing tool. But it has plugins for just about everything. Most of the data resources ESRI gives you is repackaged public data, so searching the internet will provide you with most of the layers you might need.

I’d bail on ArcGIS. It’s expensive and QGIS does everything you could possibly need to do without the price tag, or the windows dependency. If you know ArcGIS, Q will feel very familiar.