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

[eugene dalt]

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.


  


--- David Smith <dsmith at insightful.com> wrote:

> eugene dalt [eugenedalt at yahoo.com] writes:
> > It seems to me that Insightful is very good at
> > protecting whatever they "create" and the same
> time
> > feels very comfortable taking R stuff to keep they
> > clients happy. In essence they are selling free
> stuff.
> 
> I must defend Insightful on this point. As an
> employee of Insightful, that's
> to be expected, but I've also been an author of free
> software since the
> earliest days when the term "free software" was in
> use ... but more on that,
> later.
> 
> In no sense are we "taking R stuff" with these
> improvements in S-PLUS 8.
> Packages written for R will remain free, as they
> must.  This isn't just
> because the license says so, but because we believe
> that an open-source
> community around packages that will run with both
> S-PLUS and R is a good
> thing.  It's good for S-PLUS users, certainly: we've
> heard loud and clear
> from our users that they need a better way to
> package user-contributed
> libraries for S-PLUS, and they need access to the
> cutting-edge, quality
> statistical software available in the open-source
> world.  But it's also good
> for the statistical computing community generally. 
> In the open source spirit
> of "many eyes", the more people using and improving
> open source software,
> from both the S-PLUS and R communities (or,
> generally, the S community), the
> better.    
> 
> You say, "In essence they are selling free stuff." 
> I say, au contraire.
> First of all, the distinction between
> "free-as-in-speech" and
> "free-as-in-beer" is important here, and it's the
> former context that is
> generally meant in reference to "free software". 
> (For further background on
> this, see
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_as_in_beer and
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libre_software.)
> 
> As it happens, the free-as-in-speech packages we're
> porting to S-PLUS will
> also be available free-as-in-beer from an
> Insightful-hosted site.  In fact,
> as part of the S-PLUS 8 project we've put
> significant investment into making
> free software available to a wider community.  We
> put packages though the
> same test that CRAN does, and as we find and fix
> bugs in the porting process,
> we're contributing those back to the community as
> open-source.  We're also
> planning to provide an new package for both S-PLUS
> and R, as a further
> contribution to the community. 
> 
> Personally, I'm very excited about this new role for
> Insightful as a member
> of the open-source community.  Ultimately, it's only
> through our actions that
> our sincerity will be judged.  All I ask is that
> those actions are be
> characterized faithfully.
> 
> # David
> 
> -- 
> 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.
> 
>