Does anybody know of a good qualitative research software package that runs under OS X?
When I did my dissertation research, I used QSR NUD*IST, which ran on the Mac OS. But their current software (called NVivo, a far less problematic name for requesting funds from your department) only runs on Windows.
I've done some poking around, and haven't found much. So I'm tossing this out to the blogosphere. Anybody know of anything? I need something that lets me highlight and code passages in interview transcripts--similar to what's described in the NVivo information. (In the worst case scenario I'll run NVivo using Virtual PC, though I really hate to do that if I can find an alternative.)
I'm wondering if Tinderbox might work. (Jill, what do you think?)
Looks like the software you used before is still available, but renamed to N4 (better for requisition). Runs under OS X. Although you have probably seen it already:
http://www.crmsireland.com/qrs_products_n4_classic.html
Actually, it says "N4 is available for Macintosh platforms (up to but not including Mac OS X)." :(
If I'm going to run in emulation mode, I'll go the virtual pc/nvivo route...I don't have any apps running in classic mode on my mac anymore, and don't want to go back. :)
There's a package called TAMS; it can be found at:
http://osx.freshmeat.net/projects/tams/?topic_id=234%2C97%2C858%2C853
I haven't tried it. I think it's fairly early in its career. Have you tried a wiki? They seem to be a very likely tool, but I haven't got one set up yet.
The TAMS package looks interesting...thanks for the pointer! Will take a look at it next week when I'm done grading.
We may well use a wiki for some of the project work, but it won't provide the kind of coding and analysis tools that I need for working with large amounts of textual data.
Liz said: I don�t have any apps running in classic mode on my mac anymore, and don�t want to go back. :)
From my own experience and that of other people I trust, this is a good idea. My OS X machine is pretty stable, until I try to launch anything in Classic. From there it's a 50-50 shot at things working or the entire system crashing. Ugly stuff.
VPC, on the other hand works pretty well. Someone reviewed it on a recent "What the Tech" and liked it a lot.
:-)
I've got an Emac with 512mb ram and I think it's a g4 700mhz. I was running vpc in order to use Nvivo, and it was not pretty. so I bought a $300 thinkpad 600 (pII 300 mhz) and put 300mb of ram in it. Works great.
QSR's N4 does not run on Mac OS X in the Classic environment anyway. As soon as you launch it, it quits, without any warning.
The QSR support pages say that you have to boot into OS9, and confirm that N4 doesn't run in Classic.
Since the only limitation on Classic is supposed to be direct hardware access, this suggests N4 is not very well written at all, and probably suffers from being based on a bunch of hacks to get the Windows codebase running on the Mac operating system. Everything else I've ever run in Classic works, so...
I have been using TAMS Analyzer under OSX and it is excellent. Does the basic job of coding and analyzing in a simple way. A couple of postgrads really like it as well - the were a bit overawed by how complex NVivo and Ethnograph seemed, and prefer TAMS simplicity. It's also free!!
The guy developong TAMS, Matthew Weinstein, also responds very quickly to suggestions and is constantly upgrading the product. I suggested that it shoudl be possible to color codes with different colors and presto - within a few weeks this was a new feature.
Mathew is also interested in the difference between TAMS and NVivo so if anyone has had more experience on both I am sure he will appreciate the thoughts.
My coworkers tell me that N4 doesn't even run when you boot up into 9. You need to have a 9 machine. AND the company won't be releasing any more updates for the Mac. It's a real problem. So I had the same original question: Is there qualitative analysis software out there for OS X?
Danielle, I'm going to be testing out the TAMS package referred to in the comments here, and will report back on it once I've had a chance to play with it.
We also bought NVivo, which I'll run under Virtual PC, in order to do a comparison.
Hi, I've just stumbled on this list, by looking for Qual. software in OSX. N4 runs fine in OS9, but having seen what is available now on Windows, I do not feel very motivated to use N4. I just know I am not doing the best job I can. I too will try TAMS, and look forward to comments and reviews.
NVIVO runs very slowly under VPC, by the way.
Looking forward to hearing the comparisons between TAMS and NVivo. HyperResearch has also now been released with a native OSX version for those interested in other OSX qual. analysis software. URL is www.researchware.com/hr/index.html
HyperRESEARCH now runs under OSX as well as all the Windows flavors. We're thinking about a Linux version--any interest?
Here's a link to the press release:
http://www.researchware.com/news/pr/pr031029.html
Oh, that's good news, Scott! I'll definitely plan on checking it out.
Estimados Se�ores .
Les agradeceria me comuniquen ami E-mail,si disponen del software OSX qual. para el analisis de entrevistas o manuscritos en investigaci�n en ciencias sociales ( antopologia).
Gracias.
JULIAN GARCIA CARRASCO . antropologo
I wanted to know if you were speaking about the company Desiderata who sells software one of the software is EZ J com, because we have had problems with the company if this is the case pls let me know, thanks
I've been running NVivo with VPC on my iBook and have been a little frustrated with the slowness of the performance and the difficulty in printint coding reports. I am also going to check out TAMS and HyperRESEARCH.