Looking for the ideal lineage linked database program

There have been a rash of Blog posts about the release of Family Tree Maker 2011. It looks like I last visited the subject of lineage linked database programs
back in January of 2009. For those of you who are not used to that
name, a lineage linked database program is software that stores your
family information such as Personal Ancestral File, RootsMagic,
Ancestral Quest, Legacy Family Tree and so forth. There are new programs
coming out all the time and it is difficult (read impossible) to keep
up with all of them. I am constantly having people ask me if I am
familiar with [fill in the blank] program. Sometimes I have looked at it
and sometimes not. There is one site, GenSoftReviews
that claims to have "All the genealogy software, reviewed and rated by
you." They have 527 programs reviewed. There is just one problem, almost
every program, without exception is highly rated, between 4 and 5 stars
or has no rating at all. OK, now, I know some of these programs are not
worth the cost even if they are free, so how do so many of them get
such high reviews? Easy, almost no one has used more than one or two
genealogy programs. So there is no way for anyone to form an opinion as
to better than what. The ones that are not rated haven't made the radar
yet (or never will).

Let's look at Family Tree Maker. Really, who do you know that uses the
program that also uses two or three other programs? (Randy Seaver
excepted). When people ask me what genealogy program I use and I start
listing off four or five or so, they probably think I am banging on less
than all cylinders. Right at the moment I have Legacy Family Tree,
RootsMagic, Ancestral Quest, iFamily, Reunion, Family Tree Maker 2010,
MacFamilyTree, Personal Ancestral File and a couple I may have forgotten
on my computers. So how would I know whether any of the ones I am
currently using are any better or worse than others? Good question. Even
I don't have unlimited funds to buy every genealogy program that comes
along (I am spending too much on other programs like Photoshop). And, I
don't have anything near the time to even look at all of them (unless
someone wants to pay me to do so). So here we have a problem, the people
who are rating programs, for the most part, are only familiar with one
or two or so programs, so how do they know if what they are using is
good or not? The answer is, they don't.

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