[R] S-PLUS 8 beta program [repost]

[David Smith]

> Point well taken. You should, however, expect R users
> to bring up concerns. 

Indeed, and I encourage them to do so.

> This isn't a win-win situation as you sound...and you want
> to keep s-news in the dark too.

As far as I can tell, your messages never appeared on s-news.  Perhaps you're
not a member of that list?  (It has a closed posting policy.) Besides,
cross-posting is rarely good form, and the topic seems more relevant here.

> Frankly, you didn't address the real issue. How would 
>  Insightful reacts for example if they find R users
> repackaging your products named "Infact" or
> "Insightful Miner"? or as you said R users (instead of
> Splus users) "need access to the cutting-edge, quality
> statistical software available>> in Splus (instead of
> other way round).

Open software is produced under a social (and through the license, a legal)
contract: in exchange for the promise to maintain the freedom of the
software, all are entitled to use it and improve it.  The Insightful products
you mention are produced under a different kind of contract -- a proprietary
license -- and the revenues from that license pay for its further
development.  Greater minds than mine have debated the merits of the two
kinds of contract, and I shan't get into that here. But just as a call to
violate the open source contract would rightly be outrageous to those that
produce software under that model, the converse is equally true.

> ps. This is my last email on this issue.

Then I thank you for the opportunity of the last word.

# David Smith

-- 
David M Smith <dsmith at insightful.com>
Senior Product Manager, Insightful Corp, Seattle WA
Tel: +1 (206) 802 2360
Fax: +1 (206) 283 6310

Insightful Corporation (www.insightful.com) provides analytical solutions for
text and data using S-PLUS, Insightful Miner, InFact and consulting services.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: eugene dalt [mailto:eugenedalt at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 1:51 PM
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch; s-news at wubios.wustl.edu
> Cc: David Smith
> Subject: RE: [R] S-PLUS 8 beta program [repost]
> 
> 
> Point well taken. You should, however, expect R users
> to bring up concerns. This isn't a win-win situation
> as
> you sound...and you want to keep s-news in the dark
> too.
> 
> Frankly, you didn't address the real issue. How would 
>  Insightful reacts for example if they find R users
> repackaging your products named "Infact" or
> "Insightful Miner"? or as you said R users (instead of
> Splus users) "need access to the cutting-edge, quality
> statistical software available>> in Splus (instead of
> other way round).
> 
> Insightful wants to take any "cutting-edge, quality
> statistical software" from R, but they patent any
> "cutting-edge, quality statistical software" they
> create. Hence my call to people to use any loopholes
> to make these available or rewrite them. That would be
> win-win.
> 
> ps. This is my last email on this issue.