Using Stata on tombstone has several advantages.
1. You do not need to buy the program and install it on your computer, but still do analyses using Stata if your computer has an internet connection.
2. If you have computing intensive job, you can have Stata run commands for a long time (over night if you like) without your keeping an eye on the monitor (see Stata batch job).
3. If you have a very large file which is beyond your computer's memory, it is possible to increase quota on your tombstone account and store the file there for analyses. There will be an additional charge to increase the quota.
To use Stata on tombstone, you first need to register for the account. There is no charge in activating the account.
You will also need to have secure shell program on your computer to access tombstone. Secure shell program is free.
Once your account is activated and have Secure Shell installed, you may use Stata by using Secure Shell. See Secure Shell Stata.
A disadvantage in using Stata on Secure Shell is that it does not show graphs, and is not as user friendly as Windows' version. This can be avoided if you have X Window program (see Using X Window).
