Free high-quality country and administrative boundaries

> What is the best *free* data in the following categories ?
> I'm listing the best thing I've found so far.
> 
> * coastlines
> 	GSHHS
> * topography
> 	GTOPO30, should I check GLOBE G.O.O.D.?
> * bathymetry
> 	ETOPO2
> * satellite images
> 	BlueMarble
> * names of places
> 	GEOnet Names Server data
> * rivers, lakes (the two need to be consistent, so I probably shouldn't use 
> GSHHS for lakes)
> 	CIA WDB2
> * political and administrative boundaries
> 	CIA WDB2 (ouch - needs something much better)
> * roads, railways etc.
> 	hardly anything found
>
>	anything interesting I missed ?


"best" is not easy, best for what purpose? I'm also assuming you are looking
for global datasets.

Some stuff which I'd rank as very interesting includes:

vmap0/igns world vector data ? (not sure if this is synonymous with CIA but
does include roads/rail to a reasonable global coverage)
SRTM based land elevation data
STRM/ETOPO based land/sea elevation/bathymetry 

This message from the GMT archives might help
http://wegener.mechanik.tu-darmstadt.de/GMT-Help/Archiv/12967.html

also see
ftp://topex.uscd.edu/pub/srtm30_plus


Cheers, 

Brent Wood