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| Subject: | RE: [gislist] ArcGIS 9 - recommend postponing installation |
| Date: |
06/01/2004 11:40:01 AM |
| From: |
Anthony Quartararo |
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Ok sure, I'll just phone up all my clients, and ask them to scrap their
hundreds of thousands of dollars in infrastructure centered around ESRI
technology, not to mention business processes, people and an untold number
of partners, so I can have one less headache each day. Errrrrrr, survey
says......try again. That's the job of sales people, and clearly ESRI has
won that battle for a long time. My [ and many other "users"] job is simply
to delivery and use what clients want. Yes, yes, yes, there is FME and
others, blah blah blah, so then I have to add more support and more admin to
my overhead to keep pace with yet more software. Notwithstanding the
purported and/or real benefits of alternative GIS applications [ BTW: GRASS
is NOT one...], which we have several alternatives in-house, these benefits
have no relevance to the legitimate concerns and gripes about product from
an industry leader. Your proposition would also suppose that we buy the
fantasy that those cheaper alternatives are "headache-free", which, last
time I checked, NO software, anywhere in the world, at ANY price is
headache-free. Do you not complain when your beloved software causes
heartburn? If you do, why, you paid so little, put up with a little
discomfort and get over it right? You see the fallacy in that argument I am
sure.
There are at least 3 major OS options [Windows, Linux, Unix] to choose from,
and as far as I can tell, they are not in collusion with each other, so not
clear what your point was/is, because # of options wasn't really something I
was griping about. Microsoft is notorious for using is install-base as
advanced beta-testers, and ESRI has increasingly done this in the past few
releases.
_____
From: J Bee [mailto:mapcmon@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 11:44 AM
To: Anthony Quartararo: gislist@lists.geocomm.com
Subject: Re: [gislist] ArcGIS 9 - recommend postponing installation
"You would also think ESRI could come up with a method that would
truly "upgrade" previous installations without having to completely
uninstall the older version first [in the interest of saving a significant
amount of time...]."
On the flip side, you would also like to think thaqt users such as yourself
would realize that there are far better alternatives, with more advanced
technologies, easier to use, and much, much cheaper in cost. I am still
bewildered as to why folks invest in ESRI, other than an excuse like "that's
what everyone else seems to use"
Well, before the next person jusmps off a cliff, consider Maptitude ($495
which includes a geocoder) or TransCad (base TransCAD is $2,995 and far
exceed the power of Arc whateverer...). Heck, even at the risk of waking
the dead, there's Manifold at something like $300 (which does not include a
geocoder). Not to mention several other GIS packages.
Comparing ESRI to Microsoft is a misnomer. Very few options for PC
operating systems. Quite a few options for GIS software.
I dunno, maybe folks just enjoy standing over a toilet, watching their money
go down the drain...
Bob
Anthony Quartararo <ajq3@spatialnetworks.com> wrote:
Dear Listers,
Have had ArcGIS 9 (ArcInfo) installed for less than a week. After a rather
circuitous path to getting it actually installed, and a quick call the ESRI
tech support, I would have to say at this point that I would strongly
recommend postponing installation or upgrading until ESRI cleans things up
and re-issues the CDs. They have pulled a "Microsoft" on this one: the tech
at ESRI confirmed a known issue with installation on a single license
dongle [the license administrate does not record the machine name and so a
secondary step of actually typing it in is required]. But, after having
tried to work with a dataset that worked just fine under 8.x, it has crashed
multiple times so far with 9.x with a fairly major application error. I
really am tired of paying a king's ransom for the privilege of advanced
beta-testing. I will be uninstalling 9.x, and reinstalling 8.x to keep
working. You would also think ESRI could come up with a method that would
truly "upgrade" previous installations without having to completely
uninstall the older version first [in the interest of saving a significant
amount of time...].
...not a happy camper..
Anthony
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