This is a nice introduction to Mind Mapping that avoids some of the more technical description of how to use the technique that us Mind Map evangelists tend to resort to (I shall take a leaf out of your book in future when I write about it)

Of the software you mentioned Mind Manager is probably the grand daddy of them all with some awesome capabilities. It does have a 30 day trial and is a bit pricey if you are not a hardcore user.

FreeMind is a bit clunky for me (especially after using Mind Manager for so long) and a much better free application that has stunning features for something that costs nothing is available from Xmind.net.

If you like doing your Mind Maps by hand then the best software that allows that yet retains many of the advanced features of something like Mind Manager is iMindMap.

Which one you choose will of course come down to personal preference and price but all of the ones I mention are a good place to start for a beginner to the technique.

Thanks for sharing

Regards

Michael