Thanks for that clarification on the Freemind position and for the number of mind mapping software packages.

I had seen the number of downloads and it did strike me with as somewhat inconsistent with what Chuck had discovered but as you say the demographics of his audience probably mean a lower percentage will be regular users of it.

Thanks for your continued contribution

Regards

Michael Tipper

What you say about numbers is true, but can I refine that ‘nearly 300′, before everyone thinking of looking at mind mapping software other than MindManager tears their hair out?

Yes, my database has 296 software packages in it, and most are information mapping tools of some sort. But that includes historical records, outliners, some general purpose diagramming tools and other information management stuff.

In the categories: 3D mind maps, argument maps, cognitive maps, concept maps, influence diagrams, mind maps, visual organizers, and similar, it has 138 entries for current software.

Add defunct packages and it’s 183, but that would only grab an academic researcher’s interest!

I suspect the figure that Chuck has for FreeMind under-represents FreeMind users. Look at the target market and demographics: I think it’s fair to say that Chuck targets mainly the business market. FreeMind, judging by its forum – which I follow – attracts the technically inclined and students. It’s had nearly five-and-a-half million downloads as of today. Many of these would be re-downloads to get an updated version; many more would be downloads that were never used; but I believe the balance is likely to be more in favour of FreeMind than the self-selected respondents to Chuck’s excellent surveys would indicate. Not that I think it’s number one, just a *much* stronger number two.

Cheers,
Vic
http://www.mind-mapping.org/
The master list of mind mapping &
information management software