|
|
| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
| |
| Mailing List Archives |
| Subject: | Re: GISList: ArcView vs MapInfo vs Manifold |
| Date: |
08/22/2002 08:58:13 AM |
| From: |
David Nealey |
|
|
All,
I have to say that this is the best offer that I have ever seen made by any
manufacturer. I applaud Dimitri in his effort to help people make the best
decision when buying GIS software. No one or organization can afford to buy
every package just to learn if they work the way they work or not. And no
one can afford the time to test all the different packages--two is about the
most that a person can effectively learn and still do his/her job.
And Dimitri when you are open and honest like this, I hope that people will
buy your product. The price is definitely right and your commitment to
product research and development seems like it will provide a good return on
buyers' investments.
David
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dimitri Rotow" <dar@manifold.net>
To: <gislist@geocomm.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 5:34 PM
Subject: RE: GISList: ArcView vs MapInfo vs Manifold
>
> > Does any one knows about an study, report, whitepaper, etc that compares
> > functionality, cost/benefit, friendliness and WebGis capabilities of
above
> > mentioned software? I know any of them has its weakness and
>
> I don't know of a three-way comparison, but I agree that would be very
> helpful for the GIS community. There are some informal comments, such as
> the famous posting to Manifold-L comparing Manifold to ArcView, ArcInfo
8.1
> and AutoDesk Map at
>
> http://www.manifold.net/news/posting1.html
>
> Manifold would be happy to provide a free copy to any journalist writing a
> review/comparison for a legitimate ezine or other journal. I have to say,
> though, that there are practical and business obstacles to arranging a
> review.
>
> One practical obstacle is that seriously reviewing a product of the scale
of
> Manifold (1.4 million lines of code, with 2600 pages in the User Manual)
> takes a lot of full-time work. Assuming you don't want a review that
> simply regurgitates our marketing propaganda you need a fairly experienced
> character to report on all the many features. It's not easy finding
someone
> who is expert in vector work, knows enough about remote sensing and
> sophisticated image operations, has a lot of experience in databases, can
> write sensibly about scripting using sophisticated debugging tools, and so
> on. Reviewing Manifold is like reviewing ArcInfo 8.x, Spatial Analyst,
> ArcIMS, ArcSDE, SQL Server, Visual Studio and PhotoShop or ERDAS all
rolled
> into one. That's a very expensive project for the relatively small
> journalistic organizations that report on GIS.
>
> A business obstacle is that no GIS ezine or journal is financially strong
> enough to criticize its advertisers. Manifold to date has not advertised,
> preferring to put all funds into development and customer service and
> depending upon word of mouth references for expansion. While we are very
> grateful for the occasional coverage we receive from various ezines, we
> understand that a major review of Manifold is just not going to happen so
> long as we don't advertise. Simply put, there is no way an ezine can
afford
> to publish a three way review that states the product of a non-advertiser
> works a lot better, is easier to use, does a lot more and costs a fraction
> of products offered by those advertisers who keep the ezine in business.
We
> don't expect our friends in journalism to commit financial suicide.
>
> One way around this might be for an academic or other public institution
to
> sponsor such a review, preferably in a context where one of the three is
not
> already in heavy use by the institution. Manifold would donate free
> licenses to support such a review. Another possibility is for Manifold to
> do some advertising. After all, if we and others don't help support
> independent GIS publications, we don't give them the freedom they would
like
> from the limits of a small advertising base.
>
> Manifold (of course) does have some comparisons in the works. These are
> between Manifold and ESRI's ArcInfo 8.x family and Manifold and MapInfo.
It
> will be as balanced as we can make it, but then again a vendor-supplied
> analysis is never the same as a good third party analysis.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Dimitri
>
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe, write to gislist-unsubscribe@geocomm.com
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Setup a GeoCommunity Account and have access to FAST DataDownloads
> and Premium Career Posting at a discounted rate!
> https://www.geocomm.com/cgi-bin/accounts/login
>
> On-line Archives available at
> http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/community/lists/
>
To unsubscribe, write to gislist-unsubscribe@geocomm.com
____________________________________________________
|
|
Sponsored by:
For information
regarding
advertising rates
Click Here!
|
