Joe Zorzin wrote:
Anybody using Manifold for their GIS software? I'm close to buying it.

I may also be able to "borrow" a copy of ArcGIS 8.2 which I'd like to check
out.

Apparently those ESRI products like ArcView and ArcGIS are not user
friendly, being ports from mainframes. Manifold claims to be 100% XP
compatible- a totally MS Windows friendly program.

I may not like the idea of Bill Gates having a few more bucks than he needs
to feed his family, but I do like Microsoft's ideas on how software should
be designed. Once you get used to using MS Office, any other GUI looks lame
by comparison.

I'm still playing around with my Magellan Platinum and getting to like it.
--
Joe Zorzin
http://www.forestmeister.com


I tried manifold when it was in beta and didn't like it, mostly because
it's really an enterprise level system and way beyond what a simple
consultant needs. It was also buggy as hell. I recall that Karl tested
it too and posted comments on the bulliten board. The basic version had
all the faults of the Windows system (that was Win 98 then) and a rude
anti-copying policy. If you live in the boonies like me, one's computer
just naturally crashes more times per year than they allow reloads. And
I prefer to run Mozilla, not IE. Manifold was rather tempermental and
as such should reside solely on it's own computer (with no non Msoft
products to screw it up).

Arc Gis is the more complex of the two Arc's: it used to be a mainframe
system called ArcInfo. It's vast and is a career in itself. It's also
mostly command line driven. ArcView used to just be a module of Arc -
the Viewer for non-GIS whizzes to use so they didn't continualy have to
bug the real GIS person. Arcview has grown up and now is quite a bit
more complex, but is much more user friendly compared to its
predecessor. As a hint how much it's grown, it has its own free viewer
now. For Forestry though, you have to buy extra software to make it useful.

If you ever get serious about GPS, Esri and Trimble work well together.

Given a pressing need to buy a GIS and looking at what's available, I'd
still try mapmaker pro first (my choice and it talks to magellans now),
then manifold, then Arcview. I'd also try to get a trial copy of Idrisi,
which is from your neck of the woods. The new version runs about the
same cost as Arcview and has Forestry subroutines. CMT has a GIS too.
Good luck!