[R] Size of R user base

[Ernesto Jardim]

Hi,

I agree with Christian. The monitoring must be done in a ACTIVE way by
the user.

I usually don't use software that has that kind of features and it
annoys me to know that my computer is sending information to someone
whithout my knowledge or permission.

Best regards

EJ 

On Tue, 2004-04-20 at 20:04, cstrato wrote:
> 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
> -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
> 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
> -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
> 
> 
> 
> 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.
> >
> 
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