R .SAS .NYT. One great discussion.

The NY Times carried an article on R titled at this link here titled

“Data Analysts Captivated by R’s Power”. However it included a line on page 2 saying

“The popularity of R at universities could threaten SAS Institute, the privately held business software company that specializes in data analysis software. SAS, with more than $2 billion in annual revenue, has been the preferred tool of scholars and corporate managers.”

This led to a round o…

The NY Times carried an article on R titled at this link here titled

“Data Analysts Captivated by R’s Power”. However it included a line on page 2 saying

“The popularity of R at universities could threaten SAS Institute, the privately held business software company that specializes in data analysis software. SAS, with more than $2 billion in annual revenue, has been the preferred tool of scholars and corporate managers.”

This led to a round of debates in the SAS-L list here

The debates were

1) SAS Institute has seen many upstarts through the years.

2) SAS Institute really really needs to change some stuff on this new free and advanced software.Especially with a Base SAS equivalent at 10 % of the price at WPS.

The same NY T article contained this statement

“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.”

Unfortunately SAS Institute does use some freeware as components and is also supportive of open source in the past.

The R list on the other hand was jubilant. Finally some recognition.See their reactions here. specifically following this message.

While I do contribute to the NY Times Blog in comments section a lot (see here)

I was surprised by all three ( lists and newspaper).

It reminded me of the saying-