Mapping software

Question

OpenStreetMap

Microsoft has software called MapPoint . It can be used to visualize geographic data. For example, upload 1 million coordinates and group by city or state. And then compare, say, with the real population (data on the population census are also there). Thus, you can do a fairly high-quality analysis of the geography of users and a bunch of other things.
But if everything was so good, this question would not have arisen. Firstly, MapPoint costs money, and secondly, not everything is in it. For example, I managed to build several maps in time - thus obtaining an animation of movement in time. In general, a range of fairly specific tasks that, having such bases, can be done, but software tools do not allow.
So the question is :) Does anyone know about similar analogues? It may not be software, it may just be a set of maps and coordinates of the borders of states, cities ... - this is even the best option. Hands grow from the right place and what you need - I will add.
It seems there is OpenStreetMaps, but as far as I understand, you can’t download all the maps for yourself and work with them locally? If it is possible and someone worked - I will be glad of any help.

Answer 1

Decent freeware replacement for MapPoint will be very difficult to find.
But still I recommend to look:
1) Saga GIS ;
2) TatukGIS ;
3) Quantum GIS ;
4) TerraLook .

Answer 2

The complete OpenStreetMap can be downloaded from: wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Planet.osm