st: RE: RE: Popularity of R, SAS, SPSS, Stata...

["Muenchen, Robert A (Bob)" <muenchen@utk.edu>]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-
>statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Nick Cox
>Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 4:59 AM
>To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
>Subject: st: RE: Popularity of R, SAS, SPSS, Stata...
>
>I've come late to this thread, but a few basic points seem worth
making:
>
>
>1. Downloads of user-written software from SSC are public and part of
>the evidence. But -- especially for a non-Stata audience -- it needs to
>be clear that
>
>a. user-written programs are often downloaded from the Stata Journal
and
>Stata Technical Bulletin archives and from users' own websites too
>
>b. Stata is much more than the sum of its user-written programs. Some
>fraction unknown to me of Stata users never use user-written programs.
>
>2. It is easy for anyone to download R out of curiosity. I've done it
>several times but I remain a very occasional user. Conversely, buying a
>package out of curiosity seems distinctly less likely, although many
>people probably use two or more packages so long as someone else
>(usually an employer) pays.

Nick,

Good points, all. We got a measure of the impact of curiosity one year
when we found that around 2,500 people had downloaded SPSS, but only 800
had activated it (from the SPSS corporate activation database). It runs
for a week without activation, so around 2/3 of people were just
looking. This was in an area dominated by students & they probably
downloaded everything they saw in our area.

Cheers,
Bob

>
>Still, so long as each measure is treated cautiously as a proxy, then
>this kind of discussion remains interesting. But somehow I keep
thinking
>of my favourite daily newspaper, last time I looked still the second
>least popular in Britain. Popularity isn't everything.....
>
>Nick
>n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk
>
>Muenchen, Robert A (Bob)
>
>I've been fiddling around with various ways to estimate the popularity
>of R, SAS, SPSS, Stata, JMP, Minitab, Statistica, Systat, BMDP, S-PLUS,
>R-PLUS and Revolution R. It's not an easy task. You can see what I've
>come up with so far at http://r4stats.com/popularity . I'm sure people
>will have plenty of ideas on how to improve this, so please let me know
>what you think.
>
>
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