10.1 or 10.3.1 with no tech support

[KarenYoungblood3]

I have to choose whether to install 10.1 or 10.3.1 on my non-profit organization's older work computer.  We will not have ESRI tech support and are relatively low tech.  I am quite familiar with 10.1 but not any of the more recent versions.  Are there a lot of differences that would make using the software challenging with no tech support?  We will not be doing a lot of geoprocessing, mainly digitizing, editing and making nice looking display maps.

[DarrenWiens2]

It's a bit of a personal preference how close to the bleeding edge you want or need to be. For me, I generally don't upgrade until there is some reason to do so, and not until there has been at least one service pack released to fix all the major bugs in version 0. Nothing worse than upgrading only to find you need to revert for some piece of broken crucial functionality.

You've identified well-established tasks that would probably be safe at any version since 9.x (and some would say well before that), so those requirements don't need to play a pivotal role in your decision.

Something you may want to consider is backwards compatability within or outside your organization. Higher versions can open previous versions' geodatabases, but not the other way around, without the former saving to the latter's version. It doesn't need to be a showstopper, just an extra annoyance if you have, say, 10.3 and are often sharing (or trying to replicate) data with a slow-moving organization like, say, government who are still at 10.0.

I'll add, I'm comfortably at 10.2.2 and I will stay here until I have a reason to upgrade.

[KarenYoungblood3]

Thank you!  Your comments were very helpful.  After reading your and others responses I've decided to download 10.2.2.  The improved access to ArcGIS online and Excel conversion capabilities sound like good features to have.  Good point too that 10.2.2 is likely more stable with more problem issues fixed. 

[ChrisDonohue__GISP]

You may have already looked into this, but ESRI does have fairly substantial offerings and support for non-profits.  This includes free software and support.

Support

As a member of the Esri Nonprofit Organization Program, you have access to our entire suite of support options.

You can also reach our Technical Support by chat, phone, or e-mail.

Take your mission to the next level with Esri's program for nonprofit organizations

However, back to your original question, if that is not an option, I'd probably go with 10.1 over 10.3.1 for several reasons.  First, you mentioned you have an older computer.  Second, as Darren Wiens mentioned, 10.1 is pretty solid, whereas 10.3.1 is still a bit on the new and potentially buggy side.

However, one drawback that may come into play is if people provide newer datasets often, as sometimes these incorporate newer features that cause older versions of ArcGIS to not be able to read them or edit them.

Chris Donohue, GISP

[curtvprice]

I agree with Darren's philosophy as sticking with a stable version, but that would be one at the end of a major development cycle. 10.1 was a big jump - 64 bit processing was added at SP1, and a host of other things came along, and the 10.1-10.2.2 versions were very much focused on quality improvements. If you're going to stick with an old version, you want the ones at least a release or two after major changes, i.e. 9.3, 10.2.2, 10.3.1.   I would also want to add that the "10x" stack is becoming more stable as it matures.

For the file compatibility reasons, I'd recommend 10.3.1. 10.3 was not a huge architecture update and 10.3.1 has a bunch of bug fixes. Also the 10.3.1 will play nice with ArcGIS Online, which I think would very important to the nonprofit community.

I second Chris's suggestion to see if you can get a relationship going with Esri through their non-profit NGO programs, especially since this would maybe get you access to AGOL and Pro.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

This link provides a quasi-incremental list of the changes

What's new in ArcGIS 10.3.1 for Desktop—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

The one immediately underneath provides info on 10.3 and you have to sift backward through time to see if anything else is a problem or a concern for you. 

[RebeccaStrauch__GISP]

To add to Dan's list of "what's new", check out this thread Re: Version Comparison between 10.1 vs 10.3

For what it's worth, I like 10.2.2 in if not going to 10.3.x.  it's stable but seems to have a jump up from 10.1, especially if you throw ArcGIS Server into the mix. just my opinion. I have a mix of 10.1-10.3.1 in my office.

edit: that was supposed to be "if not going to 10.3.x"    ....auto "correct" gets me all the time