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I used it about 3 years ago... I worked with it for a about five years up to that point (versions 8 through 9.1).
1. Licensing was always an issue. They were stuck on some old mainframe idea of charging per processing core. If you tried to run it on a modern Linux or Windows box it became unaffordable without a long negotiations fight.
2. It requires a mind shift to realign with their programming practices. All the SQL you might know and love is backwards in the world of SAS, which processes everything more like a cursor. So while that is not necessarily bad, it is uncomfortable until you understand it.
3. The interpreted sas language, which was powerful and useful for its original design (creating massive reports) was terrible if you had a real-time transactional piece inputting or updating to the database. Everything runs best in batch. You will require a 2nd system for transactional input, and require a daily synchronization process at night.
4. The interpreted sas language itself was inconsistently implemented. The syntax around keywords and operators, even for simple things, could be different from one feature to the next, so you were always having to look up documentation (even after 5 years).
5. The compiled SCL language (which I think they were dropping support) had compiler issues. Even adding or removing white space could cause random errors (basically the grammar had bugs and was unreliable). You could spend days tracking down compiler problems in and around SCL.
6. Things that should be easy in other languages are difficult or expensive (additional feature, new license) in sas.
7. Documentation was regularly missing, and unlike more popular languages, I couldn't find what I needed on the web. Maybe that has changed with some of the newer social Q/A sites.
I have a lot more opinions, but those might be related to where I worked, and not the product itself.
Edit: I had a very bad job at the time (on call every other week, multiple calls per night, etc, etc). A bank called and offered a job where I would convert SAS into .NET... I refused because I was not taking another job dealing with SAS  It was really that bad.
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Have some sympathy and an upvote for the info.
We were quite recently recommended by a professor in statistics to "upgrade" to SAS, I'll think we'll pass.
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I was also going to refer you to SPSS - I know multiple universities in Sweden at least have site licenses and use it for statistical analyses in their research. Very pricey for an individual though.
When looking for a replacement for the Mrs (for the software she wants, not her!), I also came across PSPP, an open source replacement for SPSS.
Iain.
I am one of "those foreigners coming over here and stealing our jobs". Yay me!
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Oh, thanks for that tip! 
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Iain Clarke, Warrior Programmer wrote: PSPP, an open source replacement for SPSS.
Is the P<->S change deliberate ?
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Rage wrote: Is the P<->S change deliberate ?
I'm sure it's a complete coincidence. Nothing to see here, move along...
Iain.
I am one of "those foreigners coming over here and stealing our jobs". Yay me!
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Open source.... Probably one of the best ways to learn about something!!
Thanks
Any recommendations on what else to learn to better work with statistical analysis?
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. Colin Powell
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I told an analyst at our company about PSPP, and her comment was that it's lacking functionality compared to SPSS for our needs. Thereby not said it's not enough for you.
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Cool... How did I not see that... :P
Thx
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. Colin Powell
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Well you had six other threads to read first before you came to mine. 
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I'm trying to keep the conversation going and to vote up on the stuff that is adding more knowledge.
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. Colin Powell
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Statisticians use R, claim it's complete, then hand it to me to "code" into a system. Except ... R is documented, specifically, to not be able to be run programmatically. My R based systems are the buggiest I have.
Oh, and just imagine trying to install all of the required libraries through a firewall! One at a time! UGH. Just tell me the functions and I can write them, sheesh.
BTW, on topic, the Closest thing I use is Aforge.NET.
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I've never heard about this Aforge.net.. Just had a quick look at it and it sounds like a nice option
Is its focus on images or is there more flexibility to it?
Thank you
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. Colin Powell
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Would Rcpp or RInside help in this situation?
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R is scripting language but mostly it is open source library of statistical tests with charting capabilities.It is easy to learn and use. Few lines of "code" (mostly calling library functions) will produce desired answer from simple descriptive stats to complex machine learning tests, signal processing etc. There are more than 4000 packages developed by individuals or universities with documentation. R is easiest to start. Python is slightly more complex and has extensive libraries as well. As with all statistics what really counts is to know which test applies to given problem and what to do with the test results. Both R and Python have lots of free information on the web and extensive literature in bookstores (Amazon).
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 Cool, it is interesting to see someone talking about R as being the easier one to start with any studies. I might have to look more into R to check that...
I agree with the knowlwdge thing, I'm already enrolled for a statistics course to see if I can get a better grasp on how/why to do the test.
Thanks!
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. Colin Powell
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R doesn't do any stats stuff but there are well tested standard packages (libraries) that do. I've used some R in my job and it's fairly easy to work with, and for any vaguely standard stats the packages will just do it for you.
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Oh, I forgot to mention Stata[^].
It feels outdated but is quite capable.
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Some people already mentioned it, but I will mention it again, SPSS. I've used it at my University.
I still get nightmares from it, but that's probably because I'm allergic to math 
It's an OO world.
public class SanderRossel : Lazy<Person>
{
public void DoWork()
{
throw new NotSupportedException();
}
}
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Minitab. It is one of the most common statistical analysis softwares. It is used heavily in engineering and six sigma. It is also a very common statistics software in colleges.
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I feel like adding my .02
Worked at insurance company for years in SAS. It wasn't horrible as some propose but it does have some serious limitations. The company mainly needed a reporting tool. Should have used something else. SSRS maybe?
Worked at a college for many many years. SPSS, SAS and some stupid reporting tool called WebFocus (Biggest piece of garbage I have ever, ever had to deal with) We ended up writing our own modules in C for most of what we needed.
Worked at Commodities trading for a few years, WebFocus for reporting (Did I say biggest POS ever!)
Used parts of Mathematica or parts of F# for some serious math in there. It just worked.
I know this wasn't about reporting buttttt...
anyhoo SAS not horrible, SPSS barely works, Mathematica works.
Thanks
To err is human to really mess up you need a computer
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Cool,
It's nice to know you have a big array of software knowledge in your belt.
No worries, in most cases it will end up on reports... lol... How did F# performed? Was it easy to learn? And how was Mathematica?
regards
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. Colin Powell
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What are you trying to do? If you just want to run some analysis on some data you already have, then SPSS is probably your best bet, although it is expensive (if you're at college then there's a good chance they'll have a license). If you want to include some stats tests in something you're writing then it really depends on what tests you need to include.
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Hi Christopher,
I'm actually trying gather as many ideas and points of view as possible.
This is a field that interest me and I would like to study the subject, maybe even run some experiments. who know... 
I thought that I would have to do something from scratch, but it appears that there are quite a few tools ready to be used. Unfortunately my university doesn't have any "agreement" to provide licenses for SPSS
Regards
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. Colin Powell
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