It may be useful to look at this in the perspective of the public school
system (at least here in the US.) School systems, in my opinion,
indoctrinate kids into some very bad computer habits. These habits
persist, even intensify, into college and into, for example, MBA school.
I have 4 kids in school now, from 10th grade to freshman in college. Use
of computers is all the rage throughout our school system. The schools
think of them as some sort of magical device that will magically improve
education. But, in my opinion, they don't really understand them. All
the computer work is entirely mouse-and-GUI-centric. No attention is paid
to any sort of command-line interface, nor to concepts of programming
repetitive tasks. Kids learn how to cut-and-paste cutsy graphics into
Powerpoint presentations at an early age. They are given assignments
requiring computer use years before they receive any instruction in
typing. If Windows and the IE icon are not visible on the screen, people
think their computer is broken. There is little understanding about what
is going on "behind the screen." It's all about the eye-candy. Being
"raised up" this way, is it any wonder that most people in most business
enterprises prefer mouse-and-GUI-centric programs like SPSS and
spreadsheets? They never learned any other way of computing.
--Chris
>
>
. . . . (a) businesses aren't fully aware of the alternatives to SPSS
(and MS
> Excel)
> and that some of them might be better; and
> (b) businesses can't be bothered to look for any other alternatives, due
> more to complacency than anything else.
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
