mapping software alternatives

Up until last week, I didn't know about any viable alternatives to arcGIS.

But here are a couple (one still under development...)

GeoMapApp

http://www.geomapapp.org/

Open Earth Framework

http://oef.geongrid.org/

Both are being developed at academic institutions, the first at Lamont-Doherty and the second at UCSD.

I haven't used them very much yet, but I hope to check them out more in the near future.