[R] Size of R user base

[Peter Dalgaard]

kjetil at entelnet.bo writes:

> On 20 Apr 2004 at 10:47, Philippe Grosjean wrote:

> > Of course, this will only work with computers connected to the
> > internet,... but at least, it could be one way to evaluate the number
> > of R users. Would that be an infringment of Open Source, or any other
> > rule of freedom? I don't know, but it does seem to be quite widespread
> > (at least for commercial software). so, why an Open Source software
> > would not be able to monitor the number of users?
> 
> That would make R into spyware, and there exist software to monitore 
> and warn aganst/automatically remove spyware, and some users have 
> such installed (and it will grow).

Not quite spyware. Spyware generally works in more covert ways and
tries to hide itself from the user.

However, quite a few people think that having programs connecting to
places on the internet without being asked is annoying and a potential
invasion of privacy and it may even cost people money if they're on a
dialup non-flat-fee connection.

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
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