Statistical (and other)
Packages Available as Free Software
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This page lists primarily statistical software, along with mapping,
spreadsheets, database, stuff to do data analysis or
management. There is no charge for individuals to use them.
Many of the websites say that individuals are free to download and
use the packages. In some cases, there may be charges to
institutions.
At the bottom of this page, I list some pages that link to other
software (e.g., browsers, office suites, computer security) that
individuals can download and use for free. I also list a few
sites that have information about what "free" means.
Please note: I've only used a few of these software
programs a little bit, so I can't say much about how good they
are, whether they crash, have viruses, or much else about
them. If you use them, please let me know how well they
work. If there are any major problems, I'll take them off
this list. I'm sorry to add the usual disclaimer that, while
I don't expect any probems with them, if you use any of these, I
can't be responsible for any problems that may occur. Also, I'm
not necessarily recommending any, just providing info and links.
Statistics
There are many free statistical programs. See this
article http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Free_statistical_software
at Citizendium about free statistical software (draft as of April
2009).
Also see here http://gsociology.icaap.org/methods/softsum.html
for a brief summary of some of the programs.
Several of these stat programs were
reviewed in an article in the Journal of Industrial
Technology, (Volume 21-2, April 2005). http://atmae.org/jit/current.html
"A Short Preview of Free Statistical Software Packages for
Teaching Statistics to Industrial Technology Majors" Ms.
Xiaoping Zhu and Dr. Ognjen Kuljaca. The programs reviewed
include Vista, IDAMS, IRRISTAT, OS3, PAST and Instat+
(Irristat is no longer available)
Another review
looked at R and mentioned a few others (OpenStat and MicroOsiris).
"Free Statistics Software, Yours, Free to keep...."
Felix Grant, Scientific Computing World, Sept/Oct 2004,
http://www.scientific-computing.com/scwsepoct04free_statistics.html
I also compared 8 programs
(OpenStat, easyreg, epidata, WinIDAMS, instat, MicrOsiris, Epi Info and PSPP), and
added excel and Gnumeric,
when
data sets have no missing values, shown here http://gsociology.icaap.org/methods/comparing_freestaprograms.html
Basically, for correlation and simple regression, all gave the same
or similar results. Some also had the same results for forward
stepwise.
I also compared 3 programs (MicrOsiris Epi Info, WinIDAMS),
when
data sets do have missing values, shown here
http://gsociology.icaap.org/methods/comparing_freestaprograms_missing.html
Basically,
for
correlation
and
simple
regression
all
gave
the
same
results.
These
are
also
the
only
programs
that
I
can
get
to
successfully
and
reliably
handle missing data with my data sets. WinIDAMS isn't so easy but
after a lot of tries and emails with UNESCO staff, I understood it
well enough to get it to work. Also, Stat4U didn't work well on my
data, but may work well on other data.
Other lists of free stat software
John C. Pezzullo's list of free statistical software
http://statpages.org/javasta2.html
The First and MAIN list of software. I got links to
several of the stat packages listed here from Mr. Pezzullo's site,
which lists more info about each package.
List of free
software http://en.freestatistics.info/stat.php
lists various packages, some of which are listed above.
StatSci list of free software http://www.statsci.org/free.html
also lists some of the above.
List of free statistical software http://statistiksoftware.com/free_software.html
list of some programs with lots of notes about many of them, i.e.,
features, requirements.
Association for Survey Computing software index http://www.asc.org.uk/resources
Supposed to list some free stat software. They are updating
and the list is currently not available.
Free
Statistical Software
Epi Info
Epi Info is available
from http://wwwn.cdc.gov/epiinfo/
It is very large in size and will take considerable time to
download. This is a program for entering and analyzing data,
developed for epidemiologists, but can be used for basic
statistical analysis by anyone. This program is also not
easy to learn on your own, but see a couple of free on line
manuals:
Data Analysis With Epi Info. B. Burt Gerstman
(Nov. 2000) http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/gerstman/EpiInfo/
This is for the dos version.
This site also links to
Introduction to Epi Info and other resources http://www.epiinformatics.com/
Relational Database Management Systems for
Epidemiologists http://www.idready.org/rdbms/database_RDBMS.html
has a powerpoint tutorial for epi info and a step by step pdf guide.
The North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness Training
Website http://cphp.sph.unc.edu/training/index.php
has free on line training classes for epi info.
CDC tutorials http://wwwn.cdc.gov/epiinfo/html/tutorials.htm
CDC/Census Bureau software
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Answer http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/software/answr/index.htm
AnSWR is a software system for coordinating and conducting
large-scale, team-based analysis projects that integrate qualitative
and quantitative techniques.
ez-text http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/software/ez-text/index.htm
a software program developed to assist researchers create,
manage, and analyze semi-structured qualitative databases.
CSPro (Census and Survey Processing System)
http://www.census.gov/population/international/software/cspro/
a public-domain software package for entering, tabulating
and mapping census and survey data.
R,
R is a very widely used program, with tons of documentation
R: The Comprehensive R Archive Network http://cran.r-project.org/
"R,
also
known
as
"GNU
S",
is
a
language
and
environment
for
statistical
computing
and
graphics."
It
is,
I
understand,
like
S+,
a
statistical
language.
R
is
better for graphics than SAS. However, R is complex, and takes
a lot of study, so only use this if you have complex statistical or
graphical needs. If this site doesn't work, try http://cran.us.r-project.org/
in the US, or http://www.stats.bris.ac.uk/R/
in the UK.
There are many graphical
interfaces. Several are reviewed here http://www.decisionstats.com/interfaces-to-r/
R Commander is described here
http://socserv.socsci.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Misc/Rcmdr/
and available here
http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/Rcmdr/index.html
This covers some basic stats.
Another interface is
http://rkward.sourceforge.net/
From
the
website
"RKWard
is
meant
to
become
an
easy
to
use,
transparent
frontend
to
the
R-language,
a
very
powerful,
yet
hard-to-get-into
scripting-language
with
a strong focus on statistic functions. "
A new interface is
http://www.red-r.org/
from
the
website:
"Red-R
is
a
visual
programming
interface
for
R designed to bring the power of the R statistical environment to
the general researcher. The goal of this project is to provide
access to the massive library of packages in R (and even non-R
packages) without any programming expertise. The Red-R framework
uses concepts of dataflow programming to make data the center of
attention while hiding all the programming complexity."
Another interface
http://sciviews.org/
The
website
says
"mainly
targets
students,
beginners
and
occasional
users
that
would like to master R, but are afraid of its command line
interface. With time, SciViews also becomes a valid R code editor
for more advanced R users."
Deducer
http://www.deducer.org/
have
to
click
on
the
manual
or download.
R studio
http://rstudio.org/
is some kind of coding tool.
R help mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
announcements, questions and answers, etc.
Tutorials, faqs, guides..... Many of these were
posted on the American Evaluation Association email list.
The R site lists other guides http://cran.r-project.org/other-docs.html
including Simple R, and many others.
Sciviews also has documentation http://rwiki.sciviews.org/doku.php
Using R for psychological research http://personality-project.org/r/
Tutorial http://math.illinoisstate.edu/dhkim/Rstuff/Rtutor.html
Why R http://www.statland.org/R/WhyR.htm
from Bob Hayden, some handouts for R.
R Graph Gallery http://addictedtor.free.fr/graphiques/
graphs and code on how to get them.
Paul Murrell's page http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/
has slides and some instructions for R.
Rtips http://pj.freefaculty.org/R/Rtips.html
various tips.
Notes on the use of R for psychology experiments
and questionnaires http://www.psych.upenn.edu/~baron/rpsych/rpsych.html
J Baron and Y Li, 2006.
Kickstarting R http://www.unt.edu/rss/class/splus/Rkickstart/index.html
from Research and Statistical Support, U North Texas
Quick R http://www.statmethods.net/
shows code for how to do lots of things, from basic data entry to
statistics.
Other - General statistical packages
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ADE-4 http://pbil.univ-lyon1.fr/ADE-4/home.php?lang=eng
ADE-4 is a multivariate analysis and graphical
display software package.
I sometimes have difficulty with this link. I'll
leave it here anyway.
AM statistical software http://am.air.org/ AM
is a statistical software package for analyzing data from complex
samples, especially large-scale assessments.
Arc regression software http://www.stat.umn.edu/arc/software.html
"Arc is a free, unique, menu-driven statistical analysis tool for
regression problems." The current version is from 2004.
Easyreg http://econ.la.psu.edu/~hbierens/EASYREG.HTM
This
is
actually
an
econometrics
program,
but
it
apparently
does
basic
statistics
as
well,
and
some
very
advanced
statistics
related
to
econometrics,
including
time
series
analysis.
Emacs Speaks Statistics (ESS) http://ess.r-project.org/
"is an add-on package for emacs text editors such as GNU Emacs and
XEmacs. It is designed to support editing of scripts and interaction
with various statistical analysis programs such as R, S-Plus, SAS,
Stata and JAGS"
Epidata http://www.epidata.dk/
"a data-entry and data-checking program for Microsoft
Windows." Epidata is data entry and data checking. It can also
do some basic analysis.
A related site is Pepi for windows at http://www.brixtonhealth.com/
- some statistical tests and descriptives. This
site also includes a few other programs such as EpiGram, simple
diagramming software, and SampleXS, which is a sample size
calculator, which allows for design effects. The help box has
very good documentation about sampling and what the program
does. For social surveyors, you need to change the confidence
interval to 5 rather than .5.
Instat http://www.reading.ac.uk/ssc/n/n_instat.htm
general statistical package. I've used this to import an excel file.
Correlations do okay when correlating two variables. When I last
used this, the last case has to have values for all variables for
Instat to completely read the data, at least for correlation.
MicrOsiris http://www.microsiris.com/
This
program
"is
derived
from
OSIRIS
IV,
a
statistical
and
data
management
package
developed
and
used
at
the
University
of
Michigan
and
includes
special
techniques
for data mining and analysis of nominal- and ordinal-scaled
data. Its free but can contribute $25 to get rid of start up
reminder screen.
Openstat http://www.statpages.org/miller/openstat/
Free statistical program. I've used this one a bit and it is
comparatively easy to use, except I have problems importing excel or
csv files. There is also a linux version of
this program, and the author is frequently updating the
program.
PSPP http://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/
"is
a
program
for
statistical
analysis
of
sampled
data.
It
is
a
Free
replacement
for
the
proprietary
program
SPSS,
and
appears
very
similar
to
it
with a few exceptions."
This page http://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/get.html
lists where you can get it, in all the different versions (windows,
unix, mac, etc)
A discussion list is here https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/pspp-users
A "how to" page is here http://pspp.kiberpipa.org/wiki/doku.php
instructions on how to do various stuff
A video on PSPP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d44AdFZIfZc
by a student. 5 minutes, an overview of a few things.
SalStat http://salstat.sourceforge.net/
runs on windows, linux, mac. It is in beta, but
according to the site, "it can already do a range of descriptive
statistics, t tests (paired, unpaired and one sample), and 3 kinds
of correlations." Last updated in 2003.
SOFA - Statistics Open For All http://www.sofastatistics.com/home.php Currently
being developed. Has some basic procedures, mean, median, sd,
independent and paired t-tests, Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks,
Pearson's Chi Square, one-way ANOVAs, Kruskal Wallis H, and Spearman's and
Pearson's correlations. Can link directly to data from MySQL,
SQLite, MS Access,
and MS SQL Server,
and can import data in csv or Excel format. Further
information is here http://sourceforge.net/projects/sofastatistics/
Statistical lab http://www.statistiklabor.de/en/
for teaching stat and for doing some analysis.
visicube http://www.datamology.com/
At least the 'basic' program is free. Add ons will have a fee
attached.
Vista http://forrest.psych.unc.edu/research/
visual statistical system.
WinIDAMS http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=2070&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
WinIDAMS is a software package internationally developed by
UNESCO for the validation, manipulation and statistical analysis of
numerical data of any kind. (This site takes a while to load.)
I've been using this program for a while. Here are some
tips: http://gsociology.icaap.org/methods/winidams_tips.html
Winstat http://math.exeter.edu/rparris/winstats.html
bunch of stat features.
Zelig http://gking.harvard.edu/zelig/
"Zelig is a single, easy-to-use program that can estimate, help
interpret, and present the results of a large range of statistical
methods." Based on R.
On line statistical
analysis
Brightstat http://www.brightstat.com
bunch of on line procedures.
Statistics Online Computational Resource http://www.socr.ucla.edu/
another on line
Qualitative data analysis
(qda)
What is qda, how to do it, what software... look at these pages.
On line qda http://onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/index.php
some how to, links to software, reviews of software
Qual page http://www.qualitativeresearch.uga.edu/QualPage/
lists some software
TextStat http://neon.niederlandistik.fu-berlin.de/en/textstat/
free simple text analysis software. Word counts,
and also shows where the words appear.
Coding Analysis Toolkit (CAT) http://cat.ucsur.pitt.edu/
CAT is a free service of the Qualitative Data Analysis
Program (QDAP),
What can you do in CAT? Efficiently code raw text
data sets, Annotate coding with shared memos, Manage team coding
permissions via the Web, Create unlimited collaborator sub-accounts,
Assign multiple coders to specific tasks, Easily measure inter-rater
reliability, Adjudicate valid & invalid coder decisions
Weft QDA http://www.pressure.to/qda/
Weft QDA is an easy-to-use tool to assist in the analysis of textual
data such as interview transcripts, written texts and fieldnotes.
Data Visualization
Vidi http://www.dataviz.org/
free, for visualization
Wordle http://www.wordle.net/
is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you
provide. Not exactly analysis, but looks kind of interesting.
Classifcation and data mining
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Guide http://www.stat.wisc.edu/~loh/guide.html
Classification and regression tree software.
Rule Discovery System http://www.compumine.com/web/public/home
appears to be free data mining software, including classification
and regression tree analysis.
Tanagra http://chirouble.univ-lyon2.fr/~ricco/tanagra/index.html
data mining
Weka http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~ml/
machine language used for data mining.
Here are some tutorials
http://maya.cs.depaul.edu/~Classes/Ect584/Weka/
http://research.cs.queensu.ca/home/cisc333/tutorial/Weka.html
Specialized software
ADePT: Software Platform for Automated Economic Analysis The
site says this is the permaent link
http://go.worldbank.org/UDTL02A390 and this sends
you here
This is a specialized software. According to the site:
"ADePT was developed to automate and standardize the production of
analytical reports. ADePT uses the micro-level data from various
types of surveys, such as Household Budget Surveys, Demographic and
Health Surveys, Labor Force surveys and others to produce rich sets
of tables and graphs for a particular area of economic research."
Also, one person from the ADePT team described it
this way "ADePT has predefined set of tables/graphs and does not
provide much freedom to create custom outcome. However, it is an
essential tool for researchers, policy practitioners and students
and required minimum data preparation. Data could come from any type
of micro-level surveys such as living standard monitoring survey
data (LSMS), data from demographic and health surveys, DHS from the
labor force survey and other types. ADePT produces print ready
excel-format reports – analytical results that often take month to
create. It is a great tool to generate comparable results across
countries for different years. "
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Stat with
excel
Excel For Statistical Data Analysis http://home.ubalt.edu/ntsbarsh/excel/excel.htm
general tutorial
Using Excel for Statistical Data Analysis - Caveats http://people.umass.edu/~evagold/excel.html
points out a few problems.
tutorial from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeKyTGZlLhI
from
Alan Swank at Spring Arbor University
another tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTz2PQ-CdJU
number
one in a set. Doesn't say who this is from.
Statistical
software email lists
http://www.talkstats.com/forumdisplay.php/15-Statistical-Software
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Mapping/GIS packages available as
free software
lists of software
GEO Community lists and reviews some free viewers, here http://software.geocomm.com/viewers/
Some of the viewers or programs can do basic mapping.
http://opensourcegis.org/
has gis and related software
http://freegis.org/
The FreeGIS Project provides
* software overview on free Geographic Information Systems (this web
site)
* communication on developments, plans, infos on free GIS software
and free Geo-Data (mailing list)
* software and data prepared for direct use (CD)
Software
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Accuglobe
http://www.accuglobe.net/
a free gis program. I haven't tried it but it looks nice.
These places use it, http://www.michigan.gov/documents/CGI_min0306_164943_7.pdf
and http://marysvillewa.gov/index.aspx?NID=327
and http://seagrant.uconn.edu/whatwedo/aquaculture/dredge/spring2008.pdf
Christine gis system http://www.christine-gis.com/en/index.htm
The web site says "Christine is a useful,
easy-to-use tool that brings geographic
information
to your deskop." I don't know anything about it. The VIEWER is
free but the full program is shareware. The program is listed in
the Gislounge and other places:
viewer listed here http://gce-lter.marsci.uga.edu/public/gis/Links.html
Diva-Gis http://www.diva-gis.org/
a
mapping
program.
The
web
site
says
this
"is
a
free
mapping
program,
sometimes
called
geographic
information
system
(GIS),
that
can
be
used
for
many
different
purposes."
Listed here
http://www.fws.gov/arsnew/print/print_report.cfm?arskey=21066
US Fish & Wildlife Service - Journal Entry
http://ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=221326&pf=1
http://biology.usgs.gov/cbi/informatics/dss/cbidsstools.html
USGS tools
epi info also can do maps.
http://www.cdc.gov/epiinfo/
The
Google Map Creator http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/software/gmapcreator.asp
is a freeware application designed to make thematic mapping
using Google Maps simpler. The application takes a shapefile
containing geographic areas linked with attributes and automatically
generates a working Google Maps website from the data.
GRASS GIS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) http://grass.fbk.eu/index.php
is an open source, Free Software Geographical
Information System (GIS) with raster, topological vector, image
processing, and graphics production functionality that operates on
various platforms through a graphical user interface and shell in
X-Window. It is released under GNU General Public License
(GPL).
Grass is listed here
Brief overview of Grass, Qgis, http://www.csc.noaa.gov/cz/CZ07_Proceedings/PDFs/Monday_Abstracts/3468.Racicot.pdf
and here http://gcmd.nasa.gov/records/GRASS.html
gvSIG http://www.gvsig.org/web/
"is a tool oriented to manage geographic information."
(May take a long time to load)
This program, well, an earlier version, is listed
here http://gcmd.nasa.gov/records/gvSIG.html
MapWindows http://www.mapwindow.org/
has
a
GIS
program
along
with
a
lot
of
other
stuff.
"The
MapWindow
Interface
is
simple
and
easy
to
use
as
demostrated
in
this
Picture!
The MapWindow application is a free, extensible, geographic
information system (GIS) that can be used: As an alternative desktop
GIS, To distribute data to others, To develop and distribute custom
spatial data analyses"
Map Maker Gratis is free http://www.mapmaker.com/
The full professional version is available for free to
not-for-profit organizations, educational establishments, and
students in Africa.
Quantum GIS (QGIS) http://qgis.org/
"is
a
user
friendly
Open
Source
Geographic
Information
System
(GIS)
that
runs
on
Linux,
Unix,
Mac
OSX,
and
Windows.
QGIS
supports
vector,
raster,
and
database formats."
Qgis is listed here http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/mapsdata/geodatacatalog/default.htm
TNTlite http://www.microimages.com/tntlite/
According to the authors, "TNTlite is a FREE geospatial
analysis system providing a complete fully featured GIS, RDBMS, and
automated image processing system with CAD, TIN, surface modeling,
map layout and innovative data publishing tools. All this capability
is available in a single integrated system with an identical
interface, functionality, and geodata structure for use on Mac OS X,
Windows, Sun Solaris, and popular Linux platforms." There are
limits on the complexity of the project in this free version. Can do
simple projects but not complex.
TNTlite is listed here http://gcmd.nasa.gov/records/01-TNTlite-00.html
Other software, speadsheets,
databases, graphics,
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Spreadsheets
SpreadCE http://www.byedesign.freeserve.co.uk/
works on multiple systems including windows, pda's and other stuff.
Shareware, but not limited.
Object oriented spreadsheet http://www.abykus.com/
bunch
of features different from regular spreadsheets.
Gnumeric http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric/
free spreadsheet.
Gnumeric is mentioned here
http://heasarc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/version-history.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1215481/
Some of the office suites listed on the page below also have
spreadsheets
http://publicinformation.bravehost.com/freesoft.html
Databases
PostgreSQL http://www.postgresql.org/
highly-scalable, SQL compliant, open source object-relational
database management system.
Firebird http://www.firebirdsql.org/
Another relational database.
This article here
from 2005 is a review of mysql, postgre and firebird
This site http://www-css.fnal.gov/dsg/external/freeware/pgsql-vs-mysql.html
is a comparison of PostgreSQL and MySQL.
This site has an intro video about databases http://www.databasejournal.com/video/
and more advanced ones.
Graphics
Gnuplot http://www.gnuplot.info/
Need programming ability to use this but supposed to produce
professional quality graphs. Still under development, see here
http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/
Recent version released September 2007.
The gnuplot info site links to tutorials. Some other tutorials
are:
Intro and faq's on gnuplot http://t16web.lanl.gov/Kawano/gnuplot/index-e.html
How to use it, do stuff with it, seems pretty extensive.
CTG - Gnuplot Tutorial http://www.challenge.nm.org/ctg/graphics/tutorial.shtml
brief, one page.
Ploticus http://ploticus.sourceforge.net/doc/welcome.html
"A free, GPL, non-interactive software package for producing plots,
charts, and graphics from data."
EVE Embedded Vector Editor http://www.goosee.com/
graphics program. Recommended by a colleague. I havent' tried
it, but supposed to be very powerful and useful.
Dia http://live.gnome.org/Dia
"Dia
is
a
GTK+
based
diagram
creation
program
for
Linux,
Unix
and
Windows
...
Dia
is
roughly
inspired
by
the
commercial
Windows
program
'Visio',
though
more geared towards informal diagrams for casual use."
Other stuff, doing surveys on the
web, misc,
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Doing Surveys
ResearchInfo.com http://www.researchinfo.com/docs/software/index.cfm
list of software programs for designing, creating surveys, some
analysis. Some are freeware, some limits, some no limits.
Questionnaire Programming Language http://qpl.gao.gov/
"QPL is a complete web questionnaire development and content
analysis system. Using a simple language to describe your
questionnaire, it automatically builds all the files you need to
create a dynamic web site."
Misc including security,
office suites, browsers, software portals.
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There is lots of security, antivirus, antispyware, etc. For a
good listing of stuff, see here
http://publicinformation.bravehost.com/secure.html
Free software like browsers, office suites, portals, etc
http://publicinformation.bravehost.com/freesoft.html
What is
free software? Sites that explain what free means and/or lists
free software.
Free Software Foundation http://www.fsf.org/
GNU http://www.gnu.org/
Open Source Alternative to Commercial software http://www.osalt.com/
International Open Source Network, http://www.iosn.net/
International Free and Open Source Software
Foundation http://www.ifossf.org/
actually,
I'm
not
sure
what
this
is,
whether
it
has
software
or
not. But it seems like an interesting organization.
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last updated 11/23/11
last verified 11/23/11
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page copyright January 2009
didn't work, 11/23/11, i'll try again
A tutorial is here
http://wiki.michelboaventura.com/index.php?title=Apostila_do_PSPP
in Portugese, along with a blog
http://pspp.michelboaventura.com/ in various languages