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SAS support takes you higher (and higher)

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You know that game that people play with fortune cookie messages where you add a certain phrase to the end of the message to lend it a whole new meaning? Well, according to this announcement on our SAS support site, you'll be able to play that game with statements about what platforms and third party software SAS applications are supported on. The magic fun phrase you can add is "and higher".

Example: "SAS Enterprise Guide 4.1 is supported on Windows XP with Service Pack 2."

Transformed: "SAS Enterprise Guide 4.1 is supported on Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and higher."

In this case, "and higher" includes XP service pack 3, and Vista (with its service packs), and it might include Windows 7 when that releases.

Example: "SAS Web Report Studio 4.2 is supported on Internet Explorer 6".

Transformed: "SAS Web Report Studio 4.2 is supported on Internet Explorer 6 and higher".

This means the software supports Internet Explorer 7 as well, and perhaps Internet Explorer 8.

I suppose the statement is a little vague about the support for major new versions that we know are coming but that are not yet released ( such as Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 ) because it's always possible that another vendor introduces a breaking change that prevents our software (and probably other software) from working correctly. But as a new platform becomes important to you, you can be confident that SAS will do what it takes to provide the appropriate support.

Update 10Dec2008: A colleague pointed out that my examples above are misleading. SAS states how each major version of an OS or third-party software is supported separately - for example: Windows XP versus Vista, IE6 versus IE7 versus IE8. The "and higher" clause, strictly applied, pertains to minor interim releases such as OS service packs and "dot" releases for other components. The encouraging part of the statement that I want to emphasize is that SAS tries to anticipate your need to adopt new major platform releases, and tries to certify SAS applications for use on those platfforms in a timely fashion.

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Chris Hemedinger

Director, SAS User Engagement

+Chris Hemedinger is the Director of SAS User Engagement, which includes our SAS Communities and SAS User Groups. Since 1993, Chris has worked for SAS as an author, a software developer, an R&D manager and a consultant. Inexplicably, Chris is still coasting on the limited fame he earned as an author of SAS For Dummies. 

8 Comments

  1. Alan Churchill on

    Chris,

    What about Windows Server 2008? The SAS support site says it is not supported since a JVM version doesn't support it.

    This is a MAJOR issue IMO. Any word on when SAS might support WS2008?

    Alan

  2. Chris on

    Alan,

    You are correct that it's not supported because the Java runtime that SAS requires is not yet supported on Windows Server 2008. In the "and higher" support statement, this scenario fits the example in the Operating System section: "if a SAS Software product or component requires version y of a third party product but version y is not yet supported" then SAS is not supported there.

    I don't know when this will be resolved, but I do know that there is work going on to resolve it. I'll check into it and report back.

    Chris

  3. Alan Churchill on

    Chris,

    Thanks for the reply. It would seem that SAS needs to update its JVM. If I recall correctly, Sun recommends moving away from that JVM version.

    Alan

  4. Karl on

    On the WWM OS Updates page, we have the latest Oct 2008 update:

    October 2008:
    SAS 9.2 does not support Windows Server 2008 for any CPU type (Itanium, x64 or 32-bit) due to Sun's lack of support for Windows Server 2008 with Java 5.

    SAS is working with Sun to have Java 5 supported on Windows Server 2008 via the Sun Java for Business Program for our mutual customers.

    See http://sww.sas.com/wwm/technology9/sas9.2/os.php

  5. Ben Willman on

    Any news on SAS being supported on Windows Server 2008?

    Its been quite some time, and this is becoming a real bottleneck, as we'd like to take advantage of a number of the improved Terminal Services features in Server 2008 R2.

    Cordially,

    Ben
    Director of Technology
    SCI

  7. Chris on

    Ben, Alan,

    I checked with folks internally and Win2008 support is expected in the Maintenance 2 release of SAS 9.2; the release of "M2" is scheduled for Very Soon Now (couple of weeks).

    Win2008R2 may be a different story, since that's basically Windows 7 Server (and not a simple service release as the name would imply). However, I'd expect the support site to be updated with new statements soon.

    Chris

  8. Pingback: SAS 9.2 and SAS Enterprise Guide 4.2 on Windows 7 - The SAS Dummy

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