Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1999 15:05:50 -0600
Reply-To: "McNeilly, Russ" <rmcneill@SPSS.COM>
Sender: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From: "McNeilly, Russ" <rmcneill@SPSS.COM>
Subject: Re: From SPSS: Suggested solution for SPSS for Mac users
Doug,
I'm sorry you percieve a conflict, but simply, our recommendation to Mac
customers is now changed, and similarly, our technical notes will change.
On Mar. 11, our policy was just as Gail Lucas stated, and I supported her
then as I'm sure she supports today's announcement.
It was also our experience that a G3 is a system that has suitable
performance running SPSS under emulation, and that Mac systems that do not
have a G3 or G3 upgrade will have trouble running the software. We tested
on systems earlier than G3s, and customers told us that acceptable
performance in their eyes was achieved with a G3- not less. We're making no
secret of that, since our goal here is to make as many Mac customers happy
as possible. Therefore, we won't hold back on a solution if it is a viable
solution for at least some and possibly many of our customers. And, with
our 60 day money-back guarantee, this should give Mac customers plenty of
time to decide if this solution is good for them.
When you state '...to have the "priviledge" of being a consumer and operator
of SPSS products...' I'd like to point out to members of this list and our
Mac community that SPSS has never referred to the use of our products as a
priviledge, especially because we consider it SPSS' priviledge to have such
devoted customers.
Best regards,
Russ
-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas J. Anderson [mailto:chuskachert@YUCCA.NET]
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 1999 2:36 PM
To: SPSSX-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: From SPSS: Suggested solution for SPSS for Mac users
I note that Russ McNeilly' message is in conflict with one posted to this
list on March 11 by Gail Lucas of SPSS Technical Support. I copy the
response verbatim.
Here is a technical note that addresses the issue of running SPSS under
emulation software, such as virtual PC. Also, SPSS for Windows files are
readable by SPSS for Macintosh. I'll include the technical note that
describes the process of transferring the files between versions.
Gail
SPSS Technical Support
Q.
Do current versions of SPSS for the Windows run on Macintosh Machines with
emulation software?
A.
Although our SPSS Windows product was only designed to run on a true Windows
environment, we did not anticipate any major problems runnin git on a
Macintosh machine with emulation software. However, customers have reported
many various problems with using SPSS under this type of configuration. We
conducted minor testing of SPSS for Windows under this system, and it does
not appear to work properly. We do have a Macintosh version of SPSS
specifically designed for these machines, but the Windows version should
only be used in a true Windows environment. Many emulation software
packages do not approximate the Windows operating system perfectly and the
program is not able to integrate itself properly into the system software.
Therefore, we cannot make any guarantees about its performance. SPSS for
the Windows does NOT seem to function properly with emulation software, and
at this time, SPSS for Windows is not certified to run on Macintosh machines
in this manner.
End of technical note.
I believe that the discrepancies between these two technical postings need
to be addressed.
For feedback on my experience, I own a PowerBook 1400cs equipped with 750 MB
hard drive and the maximum 64 MB RAM that can be installed on this model. I
run the Virtual PC 2.0, having first begun with the version 1.0. I did some
testing of this with SPSS beta version and found that it is very slow; just
running the Windows on this PowerBook system is extremely slow. What most
people don't realize until they purchase the software, is that these PC
emulation software applications require tremendous amouns of hard drive
space. When I first bought my PowerBook on which I had installed a 185 MZ
NewPower chip (at the time I purchased my model, Apple was shipping a 113 MZ
I believe), I discovered to my amazement that the Virtual Software package
required a wopping 350 MB of hard drive just to install. With a 750 MB hard
drive, this was half of my drive. The salesman, of course, failed to inform
me of this fact. Now, this is probably a moot point, with most models
shipping with gigabytes of hard drive (1 1/2 years ago, Apple was still
shipping 750MB to 1 gigabyte hard drives as standard). But still what this
amounts to is that the Macintosh consumer is going to pay a price above and
beyond that of the SPSS software, to have the "priviledge" of being a
consumer and operator of SPSS products, that is, the cost in terms of hard
drive space to operate Virtual PC software, the cost to upgrade such
software (while it may be true that it ships free with current models, this
is a marketing tactic--the consumer will wind up paying for future upgrades,
and as we all know, upgrades are not a luxury, they become a necessity), and
the cost in terms of time to go the extra mile to work around the bugs and
conflicts that operating a hand-me-down system entails.
Finally, the problem still does not address the many of us SPSS Macintosh
users who are not going to upgrade any time soon to the G3 models.
Sincerely,
Douglas Anderson
Masters Candidate Anthropology
Eastern New Mexico University
----------
>From: "McNeilly, Russ" <rmcneill@SPSS.COM>
>To: SPSSX-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU
>Newsgroups: bit.listserv.spssx-l
>Subject: From SPSS: Suggested solution for SPSS for Mac users
>Date: Thu, Apr 1, 1999, 8:47 AM
>
> A letter to our SPSS for Macintosh customers
>
> * SPSS promotes SPSS 9.0 for Windows for use with Macintosh emulator
> software
> * Macintosh G3 users can take advantage of SPSS latest features for
> analytical reporting, in-depth analysis and modeling
>
> Dear SPSS for Macintosh user;
>
> As promised, SPSS has explored a solution for using SPSS for Windows on
> Macintosh G3-equipped computers via emulation. This solution is now
> possible, and both SPSS and customers have tested this configuration to
> confirm that the performance is acceptable. You can get more information
at
> http://www.spss.com/software/spss/mac_emulator/ including FAQ, version
> comparison list, screen shots, and the latest info on upgrades to modules
> you have plus modules such as Exact Tests and Missing Value Analysis never
> before useable on the Mac.
> After trying the emulator solution, one of our customers,
University
> of San Francisco doctoral candidate Harley Baker, stated "I recommend this
> solution for SPSS' Macintosh customers, especially if they need more
> functionality, ease of use and transportability than their SPSS for
> Macintosh version offers."
> "The interface is much nicer than the Mac version, where graphs are stored
> separately," Dartmouth College Statistical Consultant Daniel Gottlieb
said.
> "I appreciated the ability to quickly edit and add to the output."
> SPSS Inc. recommends that Macintosh G3 customers who want the
added
> functionality available in the latest version of SPSS for Windows, should
> run SPSS for Windows in conjunction with Connectix's Virtual PC emulation
> software. Virtual PC bridges the gap between the Macintosh operating
system
> and the PC-based Microsoft Windows operating system by translating Windows
> APIs into Macintosh commands. By using the emulator, currently bundled
with
> all new Macintosh G3s, many Apple computer users such as yourself can now
> take advantage of the powerful graphics and statistics in SPSS Inc.'s,
SPSS
> for Windows statistical software.
> The SPSS for Windows on the Mac solution provides a host of new features
> that the current Macintosh version, SPSS 6.1 for Macintosh, does not
offer,
> including: SPSS' award-winning pivoting technology used in SPSS'
interactive
> graphics and tables for exploring data; various output features such as
OLAP
> cubes; data access features including a text wizard; new statistics such
as
> multinomial logistic regression and general linear modeling; and a results
> coach and statistics coach to help users choose the right statistics and
> interpret their results.
> A complete list of new features is available online at
> http://www.spss.com/software/spss/spss90/S9CMP-0399p2.pdf. (Adobe Acrobat
> Reader is needed to view the file.) Your SPSS sales representative can
also
> fax this information to you, and you can contact them via sales@spss.com.
> Academic discount pricing is available along with special upgrade savings
> through June 30, 1999.
> Known limitations to running SPSS for Windows with the Virtual PC emulator
> include the inability to export .htm and .pct files or to print directly
> from SPSS for Windows. To print SPSS output, Mac users must copy and paste
> the output to native Macintosh applications. According to Harley Baker, "I
> had no problem copying and pasting output from SPSS for Windows into
> (Microsoft) Word 98 or (Microsoft) Excel 98 for Macintosh", "Although
> printing directly from the Windows version didn't work very well...I could
> easily print from those applications," Baker said. "I even was able to use
> tables live in either (Microsoft Word 98 or Microsoft Excel 98 for
> Macintosh) with the table features intact."
>
> System Requirements
> To replicate the results SPSS and its customers achieved during testing of
> the SPSS for Windows/Virtual PC emulator solution, users' systems must
meet
> the following requirements.
> * Mac G3 required
> * Connectix VirtualPC required (SoftWindows emulator has not been
> tested)
> * Windows 95 (included with VirtualPC)
> * 32MB RAM, 32MB virtual memory
> * 69MB free disk space
>
> For more information on the SPSS for Windows/Virtual PC emulator solution,
> visit http://www.spss.com/software/spss/mac_emulator/. Macintosh users
whose
> systems do not meet the above system requirements, can use SPSS 6.1 for
> Macintosh. For more information on this product, visit
> http://www.spss.com/software/spss/base/mac1.htm.
>
> I hope that this solution meets with your satisfaction.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Russ McNeilly
> Sr. Market Manager
> Corporate Marketing
> SPSS Inc.
>
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