In seminary back in the early 2000's I was told that the best Bible program on the market was Accordance. Of course Accordance is a MAC based program and I was not a MAC user. However, at that time, Accordance began to suggest that one could run Accordance even if one had a PC by using a MAC emulator. Now I am not a computer geek--although a geek nonetheless--but I bought into this idea and began to invest in Accordance running it on my PC with an emulator. One side note, you don't have to know a whole lot to set up the emulator. There are excellent instructions and it is, by the way, FREE. Well, I have over the years invested a significant amount of money in modules. The emulator does have draw backs and I had begun to wish that I could have a MAC. Along the way, I purchased an used clam shell MAC and was running the Accordance on that as well as on my PC. This situation went of for 5 years until this summer. Through a serendipitous conversation with the NPU commuter people I discovered that while it is not the normal practice to give MACs to profs, they do make concessions for individuals with good reasons. For example the Art Department all uses MAC. Anyway, I made request and to my great joy it was granted and I am typing this post from my new MacBook.
Strange how the littlest things can make one so happy--perhaps the better word is "sad". I told the commuter guys that my job satisfaction has just been significantly increased. Thanks NPU!
One more thing, I have no beef with other Bible programs, such as BibleWorks. There are many happy users. Yet one of my commuter savy friends who is familiar with both programs says that Accordance is much more user friendly. It seems now though that there is little difference in which types of modules are available, although Accordance seems to still be more on the cutting edge of making original texts available.
4 comments:
Welcome to the Dark Side of the (computer) Force.
Now Michael really will call you Darth Willitts!
Would you rate Accordance as good value for money? I am looking at getting a good Bible program and want to get it right first time if possible (and Logos is also available for Mac now).
Do you know where there is a good impartial review of the programs available?
Thanks
I can definitely say that Accordance is worth the money. They are very personal and excellent in their customer service area. If you are a user of Accordance you are like a member of a new family. I really like that about it.
I don't know of a review of the various options. I do know that Logos has moved light years ahead in the last handful of years. They are now competing with the others for original texts. To be honest, as I think about those I know in the field, I know of no one who uses Logos primarily. They all use Accordance or Bible works, although some do have Logos as well. My take is that many senior scholars were given Logos as a promotion to gain support. That is just my view.
I would say this, if you are a MAC user there is no substitute for Accordance. Don't look anywhere else! Seriously!
I'm somebody who had literally spent thousands of dollars on Logos for my PC. I loved the fact that there was so much available for it (although 70% of the available books are fluff).
The problem was that (like much PC software), it was clunky and didn't quite feel right. Searches were difficult and linguistic searches took a long time when they got complex. I kept updating to the latest version hoping that "this one would get it right," but I kept being disappointed.
Finally, I made a big decision and left all of the money I had spent on Logos behind me to start running Accordance on a Mac emulator. There were (and are) not nearly as many resources available, but most of the quality materials that I regularly use were available.
The emulator was really slow, but even through the emulator the performace was vastly superior to Logos, especially in complex searches. In the end, I bought a Mac just because Accordance was so good. Now it runs incredibly smoothly and I love it.
The support team is great as well. Sometimes where I live the government causes problems with Biblical items, and keeps them or sends them back without allowing them into the country. As such, the Accordance team has been extremely helpful making the resources available for me to download via their FTP servers instead of having to send me a CD. Many times if you are encountering a problem they'll get on Skype with you and work through the issue. They're great.
Welcome to the Mac world, dude! If you need any help, just ask! Now I just need to get Mike on to one...
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