[R] Size of R user base

[cstrato]

At first I want to make clear that I have always paid for the
software that I use, I am even paying for the shareware that I use.

After this statement let me come to the current discussion:
It is really shocking that some people even think about integrating
a spyware system into an open source software project.
The internet has started as a chaotic and democratic system, but
is in danger to become the worst "Big Brother is watching you"
assistant to certain governments and companies, which become a
danger for the democracy and for peace.

I really hope that the R core developer will never consider such
a dangerous option!

Having said this, I am willing to ACTIVELY send an e-mail to
CRAN or R to tell that I am using R.

R is such a great project, developed by a great community in a
democratic manner, showing how well democracy can work. Adding
a monitoring system would destroy the whole project.

P.S.: Personally, I have even disabled cookies from my browser,
both at home and at the company, and I must say, that very seldom
would I need to enable cookies. If a company web-site forces me
to enable cookies, than I ignore this company: companies want to
sell products to customers, and with such a behavior they are
hopefully loosing customers.

Best regards
Christian
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C.h.r.i.s.t.i.a.n. .S.t.r.a.t.o.w.a
V.i.e.n.n.a.         .A.u.s.t.r.i.a
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Peter Dalgaard wrote:
> 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.
>