What is the best Statistical Software ?

In our company we use JUMP. I found it very helpful for the basic use to show some relationships down to deep drill and DOE.

Surowski,
There are really two packages predominately used in the SS community. Minitab and JMP. You need to define good. As far as the calculations the formulas do not differ. I have n’t seen someone come up with a breakthrough formula for the mean median or mode, etc. The question is ease of use, support, etc. You will probably get lots of feed back about the really cool speacial analysis features and tools. Bottom line is they don’t get used much. If you have someone who need some high level analysis technique then buy them some thing and send them back to their office. BB will be able to do 99.9…..% of what they need to do with either package.
I have never done a deployment with JMP. Motorola uses both. Allied, GE, & Ford use Minitab. I prefer to use it because of the support and commitment Minitab has made to the SS community. We have had strong onsite support from the Minitab staff since wave 1 at Allied. They have reacted to our input and incorporated changes to help BB’s.
You might want to see what your customer is using. There is nothing more nonvalue added than watching two BB meet to work on a project and spend a few hours verifying how each others software works.
For my money – Minitab is the software of choice.

If your organisation is already using a package then I suggest you just go with that because people will be familiar with it and will use it more freely.
We use Minitab and I find it very good. I haven’t used any other software so cannot comment on others. Also, we have a corporate license for Minitab so any employee can have Minitab installed on their PCs.
Reduction in variability is the essence of 6Sigma so whatever you choose, ensure that it is consistent across the organisation because having different software packages across different departments will is just another source of variability.
 
TJ

Here at Sony, we primarily use SPC XL.  If you are any good with statistical formulas, you would be amazed at the functions that are built into Microsoft XL.  SPC XL is basically a bunch of macros that run with your Microsoft Excel.  These macros take input in spreadsheed tables and convert them into pretty charts, etc.  I believe we use it because it is very economical, but it will do the following large list of charts, analysis tools, and quality tools:
Control Charts: XbarR, XbarS, Indiv. Moving Range, p chart, np chart, c chart, u chart.
Analysis Diagrams: Histogram, Cpk, Scatter Plots, Pareto Diagrams, Summary Stats (Dot Plot), and Box Plot
Analysis Tools: Multiple Regression, Correlation Matrix, t Test Matrix, F Test Matrix, Independence Test Matrix, Test of Proportions, 1 Way ANOVA
Confidence Intervals: Normal, Std. Deviation, Cp and Cpk, Binomial, Poisson, and Exact Small p…
Sample Size: Normal or Binomial
Quality Tools: Run Chart, Cusum Chart, Product Capability, FMEA, and X bar +/- 3s Chart.
Some of the other programs might be able to do a little more, or produce charts that look a little fancier, but for the money, this is a good choice and an alternative to the other two.

The company I work for uses MiniTab. 
MiniTab has many advantages over other statistical software.  First, it comes complete.  You don’t have to buy any extra modules for DOE or multiple regression analysis.  MiniTab’s technical support is also very good and very prompt.
I’ve seen a couple of other stat. programs:  SPC/PI+, SPCC and SQC.  MiniTab is my preference.
TG