Free/cheap GIS software

[Longhorn_Fan68]

Does anyone know of any decent open source or relatively cheap GIS software? Thanks in advance.

 

[Orange&White]

There used to be one called GRASS that a lot of old school GIS folks used. I don't know anything about it but I think you can still find it.

If you just want to view GIS data (not edit it) you can get a free download of ArcExplorer from the ESRI website. That allows you to add in aerial photos and GIS shapefiles and do a little markup on top. But you can't edit the files in any way.

ArcExplorer

You can also now convert GIS files (shapefiles) to xml and lay them straight into Google maps if you have a little know-how.

If you are really serious about it, I might be able to procure an older version of ESRI's low end GIS software, ArcView.

EDIT:

Oh yeah, you can also download a free 60/90 day trial version of ArcView directly from ESRI here:

ArcView Trial

 

[fluff]

I highly reccomendThe Link It is not free, but pretty darn cheap, and can do just about anything the other ones can. Also, if you have a GPS unit you can hook it up and the program will track it on whatever you have loaded, it is pretty sweet...They also have a free trial which does everything except I think you can load only a certain amount of data at one time....

 

[Orange&White]

That looks pretty cool fluff. Thanks for the link.

I'm going to try to get my boss to let me buy it for "research".