SAS for Mac -Apple

[lborrell]

Hi there,

Hope this e-mail finds you well. I have been a SAS user for over 20 years and I was wondering if SAS will ever be available for Apple computers. That would be a dream comes true and very important as other statistical packages are available for Apple computers. Any insights you can provide would be much appreciated.

Thank you so much!

Best regards,

Luisa Boorrell

[SASKiwi]

SAS has been available in the past on MACs but I assume it was dropped due to lack of demand. However SAS is now moving to cloud-based architecture - SAS Viya - and you can run that from a web browser from pretty much any client computer. SAS 9, the version that runs on PCs, is due to cease full support in 2025 so I doubt that will be made available on any new platforms.

[lborrell]

Hi there,

Thank you so much for the swift and informative reply! Is SAS Viya the same as SAS 9.4 for example? If so, how do we access that if we have a site license? Any insights would be appreciated.

[SASKiwi]

SAS Viya isn't the same as SAS 9 and has a whole new architecture. It does include the capability to run traditional SAS code though. SAS Viya requires a completely separate server-based install and a Viya licence. Many SAS 9 sites are looking to migrate to SAS VIya which is a pretty complicated and major exercise. Most likely sites will run both SAS versions side-by-side for some time as migrating takes a lot of work.

[Reeza]

It'll depend on how your IT team installs it and sets it up. They'll likely install Viya on a server architecture somewhere and give the end user a URL to access via the browser to connect to SAS Studio or Visual Analytics as needed. 

You can test out how that works/looks by taking the Viya trial (free for two weeks).

SAS Academics on Demand is free all the time for non commercial usages.

https://www.sas.com/en_ca/software/on-demand-for-academics.html 

Register as a independent learner.

[Ksharp]

SASKiwi,

That is a really bad news . 😞

[SASKiwi]

@Ksharp - Feel free to express your opinions directly to SAS. Previously SAS's roadmap was to continue SAS 9 and Viya as two parallel technologies. That has obviously changed.

[ChrisHemedinger]

Hi All, I want to clarify a few of the points I see shared here.

First, regarding SAS on the Mac -- it's true there isn't any support planned for a native Mac OS version. However, SAS Viya is designed to be run in containers (think docker) that can work on any machine, and then you can access SAS programming via SAS Studio. Likewise, these containers can be hosted in the cloud so a Mac user can access the power of SAS from a web browser. SAS v9 can also work this way -- the largest example of this is SAS OnDemand for Academics, which anyone can use for free (for learning). This environment has over 130k active users (and growing) -- including many Mac OS users.

Next, regarding SAS support policy for v9.4. The new SAS Support Policy does publish a time component (5 years Standard Support, then shifting to Limited Support beyond that). This relatively recent change was something that our customers asked for so they could plan the timing of their software upgrades. SAS 9.4 (first released in 2013) still receives support and maintenance updates, and I expect that will continue for as long as SAS customers rely on it.  While we shouldn't expect major new features in v9, you should expect it to keep up with security updates and various changes to help customers use it alongside SAS Viya.

I've seen comments that characterize 2025 as a ticking clock against SAS 9.4 continued support. That's not my understanding nor the intent of the support policy. SAS 9.4 support and updates are ongoing and aren't going away anytime soon. SAS has a rich tradition of supporting software that customers rely on in their production work; we recognize that upgrading/migrating versions can be a big project that requires time for planning and execution.

In the meantime, you'll see SAS Viya updates that make SAS Viya environments more accessible and less reliant specific cloud deployments. All of this will make moving to SAS Viya (and its benefits of continuous delivery and improvements) more achievable for more SAS users.

[Kurt_Bremser]

"However, SAS Viya is designed to be run in containers (think docker) that can work on any machine, and then you can access SAS programming via SAS Studio."

Does this mean that one could set up a University-Edition-like environment with this?

[Kurt_Bremser]

And what about Macs based on the M1?

[ChrisHemedinger]

@Kurt_Bremser re: a University Edition-like setup...yes.  In fact, I'm running an early version (privileges of a SAS employee!) of this setup right now: SAS Viya programming-only features in a single Docker container, accessed via SAS Studio.  Watch our Release Updates for more info on this in the coming months. (Note: I'm not saying that this is the next SAS University Edition! SAS UE as we know it is being sunset due to its underpinning technology going out of service, and we're inviting all learners to use SAS OnDemand for Academics instead.)