Welcome to the big GIS showdown! Well, ok, I don't know if it's going to be that big, but I was wondering what people thought of Canvas 9 GIS Edition (or earlier versions) compared to GRASS and ArcView. I'm thoroughly interested in GIS as it will play a large roll in my grad work starting this August.
I've used ArcView extensively (especially 3.2) and while I can get stuff done in it, I don't like it. The interface is cumbersome and many of the niceties I expect from an expensive software package just aren't there (like it freaking out when I move a project folder from one drive to another -- relative file paths, anyone?). Also, I'm obviously a Mac guy, so I'd like to do things on a Mac as I work much better over here.
I've tried GRASS briefly and found it to be very confusing. Push comes to shove, I'll learn it. BUT, if I don't have to and Canvas turns out to be a capable mapping and analysis tool, I'll give it some serious consideration. Open source is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but there's something nice about developer a binary package with a GUI and phone support.
Anyone have any experiences? Opinions? Wise remarks?