uDig For Linux

uDig is an open source, multiplatform, free and user-friendly graphical application built with the latest and greatest Java/Eclipse technologies, designed to provide a spatial data viewer and editor with special emphasis on the OpenGIS standard.

The software has been designed from the offset to support Internet GIS (Geographic Information System), Web Feature Server standards, as well as the Web Map Server. It provides a common Java platform that can be used to build spatial applications, which can contain open source components.

uDig can be used as a standalone application and requires no installation, just make sure that you have the latest JRE (Java Runtime Environment) installed. The software can be easily extended through RCP plugins and it can also be used as a plugin in an existing RCP (Rich Client Platform) application.

Another interesting feature is that uDig is an Internet oriented application that consumes de facto and standard geospatial web services, including WMS, WPS, WFS, GeoRSS, tiles, and KML. It provides a framework that lets you to easily build complex analytical capabilities.

To use the uDig application on your GNU/Linux operating system, you will have to download the pre-built binary package that corresponds to your computer’s architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) and the sample data, saving both archives on your Home directory.

Unpack the archives, and start the application by double clicking on the udig.sh file from the ‘udig’ folder. Run the application. Then, drag and drop a file from the sample data folder into the uDig’s main panel.

Being written in Java, uDig is a cross-platform application that runs on any computer operating system where the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) technology is available, including GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows OSes. It supports 32 and 64-bit computers.