Quantum GIS (QGIS) is designed to be a Geographic Information System (GIS) 
built for Linux/Unix. QGIS will offer support for vector and raster formats 
and provide a comprehensive GIS. 

While planning is still underway, some of the initial ideas for 
features include:

    * Read and edit shapefiles
    * Display georeferenced rasters (tiff, png, geotiff)
    * Plugins to dynamically add new functionality to the application
    * Support for database tables
    * Support for spatially enabled tables in PostgreSql using PostGIS
    * Map output
    * Script engine
    * Metadata support

Preliminary Standards
QGis will be developed using the following:

    * Qt GUI library
    * Doxygen for documenting the API

Resources
PostGIS Geographic Objects for PostgreSQL
Shapefile specification
FGDC Metadata

If you are interested in joining the QGis team, send a message to the 
project admin using the link on the QGis Summary page on Sourceforge.net.