Options and sliders and graphics and maps, oh my!

I'm by no means an expert on geographic imformation systems, but it looks like ESRI has covered every little option, functionality, appearance type, printing option, analysis function and whatnot. While it still uses the default windows 2000 style look-and-feel, the environment is well thought-out and usable, with my only caveats being that first, the multiple selection modes are a bit confusing at first and second that I've been spoiled by eclipse and expect the utility windows to be dockable to the main application window.

The presenter turned out to be an old friend and we did talk a bit about the old times, about how we are getting old (because he's married and I'm engaged - oh blissfull ignorance of the freshmen), and about python in ArcGIS 9, of which he did not know anything about, as ESRI hasn't released it yet and he needs to re-train to teach it.

On the other hand, I may have only this good an opinion of the software because I didn't hear the price tag...