Roberto Rosselli Del Turco wrote:
Sometimes ago I briefly played with the GRAMPS software for Linux (http://gramps-project.org/) which looked quite effective to my unexperienced eyes. It's actively developed and will possibly be ported to Windows (don't know if and when though).
I can recommend GRAMPS as well. Its default file format is also a form of compressed XML, which means that you aren't necessarily tied into that platform. The problem with most genealogy programs is that they either use or only export to gedcom 5.5. Few of them implement gedcom 6 (an XML formulation), but even that has significant problems for those wanting to undertake actual genealogical research, rather than just record basic B/M/D and lineage information. Those interested in other standards may find the GenealogyXML mailing list on yahoo groups interesting. (Though quite dormant at the moment.)
A non-commercial package for windows called Personal Ancestral File (PAF) is produced by the Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), who (whatever their faults) also have freely available some of the best and most extensive genealogical databases available on the web. (www.familysearch.org) I used to use PAF before switching entirely to linux.
-James --- Dr James Cummings, Oxford Text Archive, University of Oxford