[R] R in the NY Times

[Douglas Bates]

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 8:50 AM, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwartz at comcast.net> wrote:
> on 01/07/2009 08:44 AM Kevin E. Thorpe wrote:
>> Zaslavsky, Alan M. wrote:
>>> This article is accompanied by nice pictures of Robert and Ross.
>>>
>>> Data Analysts Captivated by Power of R
>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/technology/business-computing/07program.html
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> January 7, 2009 Data Analysts Captivated by R's Power By ASHLEE VANCE
>>>
>>>
>>> SAS says it has noticed R's rising popularity at universities,
>>> despite educational discounts on its own software, but it dismisses
>>> the technology as being of interest to a limited set of people
>>> working on very hard tasks.
>>>
>>> "I think it addresses a niche market for high-end data analysts that
>>> want free, readily available code," said Anne H. Milley, director of
>>> technology product marketing at SAS. She adds, "We have customers who
>>> build engines for aircraft. I am happy they are not using freeware
>>> when I get on a jet."
>>>
>>
>> Thanks for posting.  Does anyone else find the statement by SAS to be
>> humourous yet arrogant and short-sighted?
>>
>> Kevin

> It is an ignorant comment by a marketing person who has been spoon fed
> her lines...it is also a comment being made from a very defensive and
> insecure posture.

To some extent but we should also realize that open source software is
a nonsensical idea to those in the commercial software business.  It
just doesn't fit into their world view.

As part of the 40th anniversary of Technometrics there will be a
discussion article on "The Future of Statistical Computing" by Leland
Wilkinson in the Nov. 2008 issue.  (I say "will be" because I don't
see it on the web site yet.)  Lee is the creator of Systat and is now
associated with SPSS, Inc. which bought Systat.  I am one of the
discussants and I agreed with most of what Lee had to say except with
regard to the role of open source software.  Lee looked at the market
share of SAS, SPSS, Stata, S-PLUS, Minitab, etc. in statistical
software and based his projections on that.  He had some ball park
figure for the "market share" of R and concluded that it wouldn't
really be important.  My response was that this misses the point.  R
is a community, not a "product" in the traditional software sense.  I
referred to Eric Raymond's essay "The Cathedral and the Bazaar", which
I think is still relevant in contrasting the views of those in the
commercial software and the open source software communities.

> Congrats to R Core and the R Community. This is yet another sign of R's
> growth and maturity.