"mhagen" wrote in message
...
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.

I guess I qualify as a "simple consultant". G


It was also buggy as hell. I recall that Karl tested
it too and posted comments on the bulliten board.

Their newest version claims to have been certified by MS as fully XP
compatible.

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.

XP seems stable. I've had it for almost a year and it's never crashed- well,
except for that time I installed Delorme's XMap- then my desktop icons all
went bonkers- due to Delorme having a weird GUI. XP actually locked up, when
I rebooted it fixed itself.


And
I prefer to run Mozilla, not IE.


I did too, but decided to give up that fight- too many programs now expect
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).

I've read that it's very demanding of system resources- maybe you said that
here. I have a rather hot Dell P4 with a 2.3 gig CPU, and 512 megs of RAM,
and a nice 19" trinitron monitor so it should be able to handle Manifold.

I've been having printing problems with MapMaker Gratis- but that may have
been due to faulty GeoTIFF files- I just had good luck printing with it. The
problem though is that MapMaker is more expensive than Manifold, is less
compatible with ESRI files, and doesn't have a standard MS type GUI, which
I've become comfortable with. A friend just bought Manifold, so I'll have to
check it out- especially it's ability to work with a GPS.




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.

That would be too expensive for this "simple consultant"- although I do have
access to a hot copy of ArcGIS 8.2. I may install it just to check it out. I
don't think I'll trade my joyful life as a woodsman to spent countless hours
learning how to use it.

My real goal is to learn to create awesome forestry plans with GIS and be
able to send the files to clients on CD with a viewer.



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!