PSPP: A free alternative to
SPSS
Software
Review
PSPP is a free alternative to the
propriety statistics program
SPSS.
SPSS tends to be
used by
market researchers and people doing quantitative research in psychology
and
sociology, rather than statisticians.
SPSS
has a data view tab (spreadsheet), a variable view tab (to create
variables and
define their characteristics) and has an easy to use point-and-click
interface. Although
primarily a point-and-click
software, SPSS also has
a command syntax language.
PSPP is very similar to SPSS. It has the data and
variable view tabs, and
has a layout that is almost identical to SPSS. Its option and output
windows also look very
similar to SPSS’s.
From the PSPP website:
A
brief list of some
of the features of PSPP follows:
- Supports over 1
billion cases.
- Supports over 1
billion variables.
- Syntax and data files
are compatible with SPSS.
- Choice of terminal or
graphical user interface.
- Choice of text,
postscript or html output formats.
- Inter-operates with Gnumeric,
OpenOffice.Org
and other free software.
- Easy data import from
spreadsheets, text files and database sources.
- Fast statistical
procedures, even on very large data sets.
- No license fees.
- No expiration period.
- No unethical “end
user
license agreements”.
- Fully
indexed
user manual.
- Free
Software; licensed
under GPLv3
or later.
- Cross platform; Runs
on many different computers and many different operating systems.
PSPP is particularly
aimed at statisticians, social scientists and students requiring fast
convenient analysis of sampled data.
PSPP has far fewer statistical analysis capabilities than SPSS. It currently has the
following statistical analysis capabilities (available from
drop-down menus):
- Descriptive statistics, cross tabs and other data
exploration features
- t-tests (one sample, independent samples and paired
samples)
- One way ANOVA
- Chi-square and binomial tests
- Bivariate correlations
- Linear regression
- Factor analysis
- Reliability analysis
- ROC curves
Like with SPSS, PSPP
has
a compute variable window for applying mathematical
functions to create new variables.
Unfortunately PSPP can’t do much more than that (yet).
Although PSPP would be an adequate alternative to SPSS
for some users, it wouldn’t be an adequate alternative for
all SPSS
users.
PSPP website:
https://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/pspp.html
See
also:
Gretl:
A free alternative to EViews
TANAGRA:
A free data-mining program
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