Bertolt Meyer has written a not-so-happy review of SPSS for the Mac 16.0. His general thesis is that it is the “most insulting piece of software” he has ever come across. He felt that it didn’t look nor act like an Macintosh application; it isn’t properly internationalized; and more than a dozen bugs.

I haven’t personally seen SPSS 16 for the Mac, but looking at the pictures Bertolt provided, I can certainly see why one might be concerned. It really does look like something that belongs on Windows 3.1.

SPSS for Mac 16.0’s main toolbar

If you are thinking about getting SPSS 16 for Mac, you may wish to read Bertolt’s open letter to SPSS first. He basically says that the only thing SPSS 16 has going for it over R is the graphic user interface.

For my own part, I’m still using SPSS 15 even though I own SPSS 16. While SPSS has done a good job of incorporating every feature into the new Java interface, it doesn’t feel like the Windows applications I’m used to. It’s kind of wierd. While I can appreciate that it will lower the development costs for SPSS because they can use the same basic code for three different platforms, it generally means that nobody is going to feel 100% at home.

• Bertolt Meyer’s open letter to SPSS about SPSS 16 for Mac

Related posts

• SPSS 17.0 Drops Support for PowerPC Macs
• SPSS 16 New Features
• SPSS 16 is now a Java Application
• Why I Won’t Upgrade to SPSS 15
• Statistical Analysis with R

Related Categories & Tags

Data Analysis Software Tags: 16.0, SPSS, SPSS for Mac, spss-16

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