A consideration often absent from the discussion of the merits and demerits
of CAQDAS applications is their availability for platforms that differ from
those promoted by the mighty Microsoft.
Queries about Linux have recently appeared on this list and the upcoming Mac
OS X might further expand the use of Unix based/derived operating systems
and tempt developers to produce versions that run on platforms that are not
using Windows. Right now however the choice for Mac users is severely
limited.
I am motivated to complain to developers on this list and to encourage other
Mac users to do likewise by the discovery that the HyperRESEARCH 2.0 demo is
not yet available for the Mac and my experience of the glitches encountered
running NUD€IST 4.0 on Mac OS 9.0.
There is a patch described at the QSR web site - but not at Scolari, the UK
distributor. There is a (post-modern?) irony in this as the patch is
available only from the distributor on a CD and is not - as is commonly the
case nowadays - downloadable from the developer's site.
All a bit frustrating but also paradoxical as Mac sales are very healthy and
Apple's share price today hit an all time high - of course I am not really
suggesting to qualitative researchers that there may be any causal relation
between the two phenomena.
Kevin
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Dr Kevin J. Brehony, School of Education, The University of Reading,
Bulmershe Court, Reading RG6 1HY, UK
Telephone: +44 (0) 1189 875123 x 4873. Fax:+44 (0)1189 318863
e-mail: [log in to unmask] http://www.rdg.ac.uk/ESM/ESM/kjb.html
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