I agree wholeheartedly with Jerry. Also, what tools will you need? If you are going to use simple statistical tools such as summary statistics, t-tests, and ANOVA's then most will probably suffice. SPSS, JMP, Statistica, and Minitab seem popular. I'm not sure of the current pricing. If you want to do factorial DOE's then you'll need to look more closely at the features. Just three years ago several top software packages did not even allow you to input the actual factor levels; you had to code them as 1's or 0's. Back then Minitab, JMP, and Statistical did DOEs best. I think Statistica was somewhat harder to figure out and JMP had a problem with providing incorrect p-values if the user accidentally identified the factor variables as continuous (which seemed to happen often around here). JMP 4 probably has corrected this (I hope). Some statistical software also focuses more heavily on industrial statistics (Measurement System Analysis, process capability, SPC) such as Minitab, JMP, and Statistica. Minitab does MSA best. Minitab & Statistica do process capability best. All three do SPC OK, but SPC really should be done real-time using dedicated software. Jerry Dallal wrote: > tony685 wrote: > > > > Hi, > > > > I'm looking for a high-quality statistical analysis package with > > 'many' capabilities and whose price is < $1500. Any opinions? > > Thanks. > > Unfortunately, you've asked the equivalent of "What car > should I buy for under $25k (US)." There are many > excellent choices in your price range. Just as some cars are > better suited for some tasks, the same holds for statistical > software. Graphics? SYSTAT. Pretty output? SPSS. Craft your > own procedures? Stata or S-Plus, depending on how much you > want done for you already. > > So, here's my official opinion--get whatever your colleagues > are using! =========================================================================== This list is open to everyone. Occasionally, less thoughtful people send inappropriate messages. Please DO NOT COMPLAIN TO THE POSTMASTER about these messages because the postmaster has no way of controlling them, and excessive complaints will result in termination of the list. For information about this list, including information about the problem of inappropriate messages and information about how to unsubscribe, please see the web page at http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ ===========================================================================
