 |
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date index][Thread index]
Re: st: Stata on Mac or PC
.
If you are choosing a notebook, get the 17" Mac Book Pro with 4 GB RAM
with midlevel chip speed (Apple tends to take your money quickly
between the mid and high speed chips). This notebook fits perfectly in
the Zero Halliburton DZ5-GM hard case ($290, luggage.com) and you will
look like James Bond to boot. If you are choosing a Desktop, the 24"
iMac is really nice (wife just got one). The Mac Pro would be my
choice if I had money to burn, and buying Stata for 8 cores will set
you back quite a bit. On the other hand, I'd probably wait on the Mac
Pro until Stata comes out with the 64 bit version, because you would
probably want more than 4 GB of RAM if you went this workstation route.
On Jun 26, 2008, at 11:16 AM, Data Analytics Corp. wrote:
Hi,
This has all been very helpful, and actually consistent with what
I've heard about using a MAC, especially with Parallel. Maybe I
should try it. Now, any particular MAC to recommend?
Thanks,
Walt
Stefano Costalli wrote:
well...guys..the issue seems to be of interest to many people! I
got some precious information. Thanks a lot for the moment!
S.
-----Original message-----
From: David Airey [email protected]
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:20:39 +0200
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: st: Stata on Mac or PC
.
On OS X Leopard, you can create a Windows partition on your HD
and boot natively to XP or Vista as you like. In this instance it
is truly a WIndows PC, and actually beats a number of Windows PCs
in performance. Alternatively, you can buy WIndows emulation
software (Parallels is my favorite) that allows you to run OSs
side by side, and actually copy and paste between windows and mac
applications. This mode is a little slower, but is faster than
slow PC chips running natively, and is very convenient. I run SAS
Proc Mixed via Parallels and Mplus and I have had no issues.
Currently not all SAS products support Vista, so you will want to
run XP until 9.2 comes out. With regard to Microsoft Office 2008
for the Mac, the latest update (12.1.1, I think) fixes a lot of
bugs that made passing files back and forth with Office 2007
(like missing spaces). MS Office 2008 doesn't have visual basic
support for Excel like MS Office 2007 does, although MS promised
to put it "back in", how kind. So there are some issues, but they
are disappearing as I write...I think the key to most potential
switchers is the Windows is still available on the mac. Most find
they gravitate towards spending most of their time in Leopard
when they do buy a mac. Stata is great on the mac, and will be
more so when the 64 bit version comes out. One thing that bothers
me is the high cost to Stata with 8 cores. More cores are the
future of computing, so is the future of Stata higher prices???
On Jun 26, 2008, at 10:07 AM, Data Analytics Corp. wrote:
Good morning,
I've been watching the exchange on this issue. I'm more curious
right now about Phil's statement that "you can even run Linux or
Windows (without a performance penalty and without dual-booting)
if you need to" on an Intel MAC machine. I'm thinking about
buying one even though I already have a ThinkPad running Vista.
I'm looking for more input about running Windows software
(Stata, S-Plus, SAS primarily) on the MAC as well as creating
Word and PowerPoint files on the MAC that my Window's based
client can read. Any comments or suggestions?
Thanks,
Walt
Phil Schumm wrote:
On Jun 26, 2008, at 8:24 AM, Stefano Costalli wrote:
I have a non-Stata question, but I need an answer to use stata
at its best!
So far I have used Stata 9.2 SE on my laptop (IBM T series),
but now I have to give it back to my department and I have
some doubts. I'm choosing between the new version of IBM T
Series and Macbook pro. My old IBM worked very well, but I
like also the Macbook pro. Unfortunately I don't have
colleagues or friends who use Stata on a Mac machine. Could
anyone give me some feedback? Has anyone done any comparison?
Good functioning of Stata will be an essential variable in my
decision..
Thanks to StataCorp, you pretty much get the same Stata
experience on any OS they support. There are some minor GUI
differences, of course; being primarily an OS X user, I vastly
prefer the OS X version (e.g., fonts look better, interface is
cleaner, etc.). But, I'll admit, there's an element of
subjectivity to this.
One current issue for OS X is that the 64-bit version of Stata
for OS X is not yet available. It is, however, under active
development, and may be available by the end of the year (see http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2008-05/msg00916.html)
. Thus, unless you need the 64-bit version immediately, this
shouldn't be an issue.
Given that Stata is pretty much the same on every platform, the
choice then really boils down to other factors. And for
scientific computing, an Intel Mac is a shining star. You have
the full power of Unix with a nice GUI, and, with the Intel
Macs, you can even run Linux or Windows (without a performance
penalty and without dual- booting) if you need to.
One more thing: unless you're a die-hard Emacs (or perhaps even
vi) user, one of the single best text editors available
(TextMate) is only available for the Mac. TextMate makes
coding, writing, etc. a dream, and is fantastic for editing
Stata do-files. Even if I didn't already prefer OS X for other
reasons, I'd still consider TextMate a reason to switch.
-- Phil
*
* 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/
--
________________________
Walter R. Paczkowski, Ph.D.
Data Analytics Corp.
44 Hamilton Lane
Plainsboro, NJ 08536
________________________
(V) 609-936-8999
(F) 609-936-3733
[email protected]
www.dataanalyticscorp.com
*
* 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/
*
* 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/
*
* 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/
--
________________________
Walter R. Paczkowski, Ph.D.
Data Analytics Corp.
44 Hamilton Lane
Plainsboro, NJ 08536
________________________
(V) 609-936-8999
(F) 609-936-3733
[email protected]
www.dataanalyticscorp.com
*
* 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/
*
* 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/