"To Whomever Wanted This Information":

I have gained some insight and experience into the question regarding the Macintosh and SPSS software. Let me explain.

Sometime last Spring (about January 1998), I purchased the most up-to-date version of SPSS that is available for the Power Macintosh, V. 6.1.1 Since I am a graduate student, I was able to buy the package termed the "Graduate Pack" which is the professional version of the Base, Professional Statistics, and Advanced Statistics bundled and sold to students like myself for about $150. The manuals are extra and I did purchase the entire suite of manuals needed for this software, a solid investment since I use these manuals constantly. This purchase, by the way, is an edge that SPSS has over SAS as I quickly discovered that SAS does not treat students in the same manner. In other words, there is no special software purchase available from the SAS Corporation.

As a purchaser of the Graduate Pack, however, I am only entitled to support that relates to the installation of my software product. If I need technical help regarding the software itself, I must come to this list, as there is only one professor on our campus who uses SPSS and he has the latest version for the Windows operating system. As a dedicated Power Macintosh user, I have learned that the scientific software and support does not exist on the same level as it does for that of Windows. Back to my story.

I quickly discovered that this version of SPSS for the Power Macintosh does not run well with the Mac System 7.5.3 (7.5 Update of 2.0). Technical support guided me through several bugs that were causing my system to repeatedly crash but I was never able to get past all of the bugs. There weren't many but there was one procedure that I had to follow in order to run SPSS on 7.5.3 that was very annoying. Basically, I had to start up my system with extensions off, remove a certain SPSS extension from my Extensions Folder to disable it, and then restart my system with Extensions on. After my system was booted up, I could then replace the conflict extension in the Extensions Folder. This solved the problem of operating the SPSS software and performing all of the tasks I needed to do but I could never close the application without it causing my system to bomb. This is how I was able to solve the problem.

Acting on the advice of one of the SPSS technicians, I set up a separate Zip disk (100 mb) as an independent hard disk with Mac System software version 7.5 (no updates). That is, a Zip disk with System 7.5 and the complete SPSS 6.1.1 version that I referred to above. Now when I need to work with SPSS, I simply boot my computer from this disk. In the four months that I have been running the software in this manner, I have never experienced a bug or conflict with my Mac System software and all is well.

What does this mean for the Power Macintosh user who wishes to use SPSS on his/her system? You will not be able to run your software on any system higher than 7.5 (no updates), and that includes especially Mac OS 8 and beyond. SPSS has decided not to commit the funding resources that would be required to develop new versions that are compatible with these later Mac Operating Systems but if you follow the simple remedy that I prescribe here, all will be well.

Sincerely,

Douglas Anderson Masters Candidate in Anthropology Eastern New Mexico University Portales, New Mexico 88130