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ArcGIS (General Package)

Functionality Background Licence availability, restrictions &
links to distributor
ArcGIS is a software package focussed on the
management, manipulation and visualisation of geographically referenced data. It includes a range of statistical analysis routines that enable the summary of geographically referenced data. There are a number of add-on packages that provide enhanced geostatistical functionality.
ArcGIS was developed by ESRI (the Environmental Systems Research Institute) in 1997 from a range of earlier packages focussed
on different aspects of the management, manipulation and visualisation of geographically referenced data.
Supplied by ESRI via a CHEST site license, allowing staff and students to use on University and personal machines for University-related work. Runs on Windows only. Further information is available at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/its/
servicessupport/software/gis


Note on General Purpose Packages which have some Statistical Functionality:

These packages are not basically designed for statistical analysis, but all have some statistical functionality and some, being mathematical tools, pretty much allow you to write any statistical analysis from scratch. But we would generally advise using packages that were designed primarily for statistical analysis since their functionality will generally have been tested and verified for statistical purposes. If you write your own calculations in a mathematical calculation tool, you risk miscoding the statistical technique and drawing poor or completely wrong inferences.

Please share your experiences and examples of how you have used this software by leaving a comment below, to help others choose the right software for their research requirements.