GIS Proprietary Versus Free: A Comparative Study Using Geomedia Professional and Grass

要旨

This study presents the results of a comparative analysis of two GIS tools; Geomedia Professional (First Fully Compliant Microsoft OLE/COM Proprietary GIS Application) and GRASS (First Free GIS). The comparison is carried out through the project "Implementation of Cartographic Information for Communal Forests in the Region of Os Ancares", by evaluating both tools in terms of capability, functionality, ease of use and time of implementation. The analysis reveals that GRASS shows higher capability to analyze and manipulate data, and covers more application areas in GIS projects, while Geomedia Professional shows a more robust graphical interface and DBMS, which reduces the execution time of the project. Although the use of Geomedia Professional involves higher implementation costs, no significant differences are observed in the overall productivity of the project due to the reduction in the execution time. Nevertheless, major differences can be expected for larger projects.