HealthMaps wrote: > > I think its best to stick with objective assessment and avoid ESRI bashing. > I am no apologist for ESRI and not for MI either. We need some attempt at > objective comparison not "God kills a kitten" or "Worship Satan and eat > children entrails" stuff. This is not the material for constructive > dialogue.
I never mentioned Satan, or brought up Nazis, or summoned Kibo or flamed Archemedies Plutonium, or committed any other traditional 'net faux pas. You're taking a too reasonable response to a question that begs a poke in the ribs. There is no reasonable answer to, "Why did we buy MapInfo instead of Arc/INFO 5 years ago?" Probably the fact that Arc/INFO sported an $18,000 price tag in 1998 was a factor in the decision. The other factor was undoubtedly political. The technical people are often never asked their opinion. If the GIS professionals had been asked, and money nor politics was a factor, they would have said, "give us UNIX and Arc/INFO." Now that Windows is *the* platform, and they've got us all asking the wrong questions, nobody cares what the answers are. If I had had 18,000 clams and a UNIX workstation when I first hung out my shingle years ago, I'd have taken the ESRI route, and MapInfo-L would have had a different history. But MapInfo has impressed me over the years as a technically excellent product, so I don't regret throwing in my lot with them. I think less of MapInfo's business decisions, but my goals in running a small business differ from those of the Fortune 500 wannabes. I do quietly dabble with ArcView occasionally because I have a lot of clients who want me to go that way for them, but I don't think that product is quite as solid. I seem to be able to make it cough up its socks without even trying all that hard. But I'll admit, it's not horrible, and there are some business decisions I need to make that require a good, hard look at this alternative -- MapInfo's new partner license is yet another straw on this camel's back. (But anyone who knows camels knows what cranky, complaining beasts they are. And I'm no exception, except that I don't spit and smell like a bathroom carpet.) My facetious comment about kittens was just to light a fire. I don't see anything wrong with a "GIS professional" being a bit hyperbolic if it makes people think of the non-technical issues in the equation. Money and politics is all too often the deciding factor these days. I'm just pointing it out. - Bill Thoen --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message number: 2836
