Unless a person
needs ESRI ArcGIS software for some occupational or advanced functional reasons, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND
Manifold GIS for value, power, and ease of use. It is true that you can get a one year license for ArcGIS (ArcView and extensions, value of $10K) if you are taking it in a college course. I know because I have taught ArcGIS at college and have dispensed 45 licenses at a time. The students were all learning to be environmental professionals so GIS is important to their careers.
To get the free ArcGIS one year license requires the availability of an ArcGIS course at a college near you, and the commitment of time and money to take the course. You will learn a lot, but most people just want to use the software to do what they want to get done and do not want to spend a lot of money to sit in a class in order to get one year of free software. If you want to keep the license after the course then ESRI will let you pay the full amount to activate a permanent license. After that, ESRI will want about $500 per year for "software maintenance" in order to provide you with updates and couple of support calls. If you don't pay the maintenance then when a significant upgrade is released you will have to pay several times the maintenance fee in order to get the update. Few people can afford to purchase and maintain an ArcGIS license for a hobby. By all means take a college course in GIS if you can, but don't do it for the free software.
I recommend the Manifold standard license which costs $295, for which price you own it forever. No maintenance fee, and free interim updates. When significant major version updates occur (about every 18-24 months) they cost $50. Manifold reads and writes ALL ESRI data formats (such as Shapefiles, and Geodatabases), and is compliant with virtually all Open GIS Consortium (OGIS) standards (
http://www.opengeospatial.org/).
Manifold readily connects with a Garmin GPS. I use my Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx (
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=351&ra=true) connected via USB to my Vaio notebook running Manifold GIS. I can see my position and my course overlaid on aerial orthophotos in realtime. So, if you have a Garmin then Manifold can display the realtime data. Manifold can save the realtime data stream, or it can import saved data from the GPS, for later use in the GIS.
Manifold can read and write KML and KMZ files and is fully interoperational with Google Earth and Google Maps. It can use SOAP and Web 2.0 technology to collect data from web data servers, such as weather data or travel data, and display it on the screen as it updates. Manifold can export maps as JPEGs and PDFs as well. As a full GIS software package, Manifold can import the mountains of geospatial data available from federal, state, and local sources. For instance, here in NY State, I can get all of the aerial photos, all of the street network, many of the parcels for upstate counties, all of the surface streams and ponds, soils, subsurface geology, railroads, state and local parks, etc. Imagine if you were looking for someplace to ask permission to hunt - you could know where the best habitat and terrain are, perhaps with a ponds, streams, or meadows that are not visible from the road or on most maps; and then you could identify the land owners in the area, even to know if the land is owner occupied, and then contact them for permission to hunt. Imagine the power of GIS in searching for a homestead or bug-out-location.
Another (FREE) resource to know about is the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MNDR) Garmin-to-Shapefile conversion tool (
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mis/gis/tools/arcview/extensions/DNRGarmin/DNRGarmin.html ). This free software will let you download your Garmin GPS to any computer and will save the GPS data as an ESRI Shapefile ready to import into any GIS system. If you have a Garmin then it is worth it to download this very handy freebie.
As for putting your own 'maps' on your GPS unit, it can't be done with recreational GPS units. You can import/export coordinate info (x,y,z) and vector info (path between coordinates) but that is about it. To be able to import/export aerial photos or GIS features such as roads or building footprints, then you need survey level equipment such as hand-held units made by Trimble (
http://www.trimble.com/mgis_fcgps.shtml ). They start at around $7K, so they are kinda' expensive for recreational or occasional use.
So my suggestion is a combo of a good Garmin GPS, along with Manifold GIS, in order to combine publicly available data with your own data, and to be able to analyze and portray the resulting maps however you choose. Use the free MNDR import software for quick GPS-to-GIS download and data conversion on any computer. Then, use JPEGs and PDFs to deliver digital or print copies of your custom maps out of the GIS for archival/operational purposes, and use KML files to broadcast data to your 'group' (family, customers, whatever ...) via Google Earth, Google Maps, and Microsoft Bing Maps. Give it a shot and have fun.
ClarkB, GISP - Certified Geographic Information Systems Professional (
http://www.gisci.org/)
