A very interesting map and data setup

[cmpm]

http://www.freewaregenius.com/2011/04/02/freeware-to-get-started-with-gis-and-explore-mapped-data/

ArcGIS, browser based or installed program.
via- freewaregenious

Just using it for the maps is useful imo.

[tomos]

Thanks cmpm

it would be interesting to see if you can actually produce anything with it.
It does say:

Fuse your local data with map services to create custom maps.

Also, there's a couple of suggestions in the comments for free opensource gis programmes (qgis, uDig, MapWindow)