[R] The hidden costs of GPL software?

[Jan P. Smit]

Dear Phillippe,

Very interesting. The URL of the article is 
http://www.scientific-computing.com/scwsepoct04free_statistics.html.

Best regards,

Jan Smit


Philippe Grosjean wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> In the latest 'Scientific Computing World' magazine (issue 78, p. 22), there
> is a review on free statistical software by Felix Grant ("doesn't have to
> pay good money to obtain good statistics software"). As far as I know, this
> is the first time that R is even mentioned in this magazine, given that it
> usually discuss commercial products.
> 
> In this article, the analysis of R is interesting. It is admitted that R is
> a great software with lots of potentials, but: "All in all, R was a good
> lesson in the price that may have to be paid for free software: I spent many
> hours relearning some quite basic things taken for granted in the commercial
> package." Those basic things are releated with data import, obtention of
> basic plots, etc... with a claim for a missing more intuitive GUI in order
> to smooth a little bit the learning curve.
> 
> There are several R GUI projects ongoing, but these are progressing very
> slowly. The main reason is, I believe, that a relatively low number of
> programmers working on R are interested by this field. Most people wanting
> such a GUI are basic user that do not (cannot) contribute... And if they
> eventually become more knowledgeable, they tend to have other interests.
> 
> So, is this analysis correct: are there hidden costs for free software like
> R in the time required to learn it? At least currently, for the people I
> know (biologists, ecologists, oceanographers, ...), this is perfectly true.
> This is even an insurmountable barrier for many of them I know, and they
> have given up (they come back to Statistica, Systat, or S-PLUS using
> exclusively functions they can reach through menus/dialog boxes).
> 
> Of course, the solution is to have a decent GUI for R, but this is a lot of
> work, and I wonder if the intrinsic mechanism of GPL is not working against
> such a development (leading to a very low pool of programmers actively
> involved in the elaboration of such a GUI, in comparison to the very large
> pool of competent developers working on R itself).
> 
> Do not misunderstand me: I don't give up with my GUI project, I am just
> wondering if there is a general, ineluctable mechanism that leads to the
> current R / R GUI situation as it stands,... and consequently to a "general
> rule" that there are indeed most of the time "hidden costs" in free
> software, due to the larger time required to learn it. I am sure there are
> counter-examples, however, my feeling is that, for Linux, Apache, etc... the
> GUI (if there is one) is often a way back in comparison to the potentials in
> the software, leading to a steep learning curve in order to use all these
> features.
> 
> I would be interested by your impressions and ideas on this topic.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Philippe Grosjean  
> 
> ..............................................<°}))><........
>  ) ) ) ) )
> ( ( ( ( (    Prof. Philippe Grosjean
>  ) ) ) ) )
> ( ( ( ( (    Numerical Ecology of Aquatic Systems
>  ) ) ) ) )   Mons-Hainaut University, Pentagone
> ( ( ( ( (    Academie Universitaire Wallonie-Bruxelles
>  ) ) ) ) )   6, av du Champ de Mars, 7000 Mons, Belgium  
> ( ( ( ( (       
>  ) ) ) ) )   phone: + 32.65.37.34.97, fax: + 32.65.37.33.12
> ( ( ( ( (    email: Philippe.Grosjean at umh.ac.be
>  ) ) ) ) )      
> ( ( ( ( (    web:   http://www.umh.ac.be/~econum
>  ) ) ) ) )
> ..............................................................
> 
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