Software Deployment

Wise Package Studio is discontinued, AdminStudio(InstallShield) is not.

AdminStudio does have a 30 day trial available for download.

Since Wise is disconintued and replaced with "adminstudio for symantec" it seems a moot question to me?

Both tools are more or less the same, if you know the windows installer technology and you are proficient in one tool it will be easy to learn the other tool.
Installshield ties more closer to the tables in the general look & feel, ie. for custom actions you need to first add the custom action and then place is correctly in the sequence. As you would in the database.
For Wise you can add the custom action directly where you want it in the sequence while adding the custom action.

Wise included Wisescript, which will be included in adminstudio for symantec, which is a fairly easy point & click scripting tool.
Installshield includes installscript, which needs more scripting and programming knowledge.

All in all, it's what you like to use.

I have to agree with Robin's assessment. In the end the underlying technology is the same (Windows Installer / MSI).
Having worked with both Installshield and Wise extensively, I personally prefer Installshield (lucky me, with Wise being discontinued / folded into Installshield for Symantec) since it gives me the feeling of being 'closer' to the MSI tables, like Robin said. But that's just personal preference.

WiseScript is, in my opinion, a definite merit of Wise, mainly since it allows the creation of .exe wrappers without needing an extra footprint on the client to allow execution. This in contrast to ISScript, which does require the ISScript.msi to be installed on the client, one of the main reasons why I've always tried to avoid using it. I haven't really found a full alternative for WiseScript in this respect at this point...

Wise is discontinued now, but even before that point, I found them to be lagging behind Installshield when it comes to supporting 'new' technology like 64-bit packaging, App-V etc.

I'd like to restate though, that the key point for a packager is to know the Windows Installer technology (As VBScab would say: Read and Digest Phil Wilson's Definitive Guide to Windows Installer), the rest is just packaging (hehe)

PJ