Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 12:11:43 -0800
Reply-To: Duane Wilson <duanewilson@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From: Duane Wilson <duanewilson@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Package for Linux
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
May be we should convince Conceptual Software (sellers of DBMS/COPY)
to port their PRODAS package to Linux. I used that many years ago and
it had enough of the SAS capabilities to make me happy.
Duane
Bigpond <tchur@BIGPOND.COM> Wrote ----
There has been much discussion on SAS-L of a port of SAS to the Linux
platform in months past. Seems that SI aren't interested, at least at
this
stage.
I have just come across a reference to PSPP, a clone of a popular
commercial
statistical package (a major competitor of SAS). PSPP runs under Linux
(and
many other platforms), has a GNU Copyleft license and is available as
source
code. Still in the earlier stages, it seems, but it looks promising. Has
anyone used it? The Web page is
http://www.fsf.org/software/fiasco/index.html (the project was formerly
called Fiasco)
Now, if only someone would start work on GNU-licensed project called
ASA...
Couldn't someone dust off the source code for the now defunct BASS
System as
a starting point?
$ mount /soapbox
Such free software initiatives eventually benefit everyone. At first,
the
free software, albeit with limited functionality, enables groups and
individuals which cannot afford commercial software to benefit (usually
non-governmental non-profit or community-based organisations in rich
countries, and increasingly just about everyone including government and
even large local private companies in developing countries, with the
exception perhaps of large multinationals). Eventually, as the
capablities
of free software projects mature, they exert market pressure on
commercial
vendors which force prices down for everyone. It looks like Linux is
probably just beginning to have this effect on many Unix vendors and on
Microsoft Windows NT.
On a related theme, there has been some discussion recently in the
media of
billionaires such as George Soros and Bill Gates suddenly developing a
social conscience and re-inventing themselves as big-time
philanthropists.
If Dr Goodnight wants to follow suit, then the best thing he could
possibly
do would be to port SAS V6.11 or 6.12 to Linux and make it available
(not
the source code) for free or very, very cheaply. I mentioned V6.11
because I
suspect that SAS V6.11 for Intel ABI+ (Intel-based Unix) would be the
best
place to start such a port to Linux at the least cost. What a boon this
would be to so many projects, enterprises and governments in devoloping
countries! Not to mention that SAS for Linux could then be promoted
heavily
in universities in developing countries, which are increasingly
supplying
more and more of the developed world's requirement for IT personnel.
Having
large numbers of SAS literate graduates in developing countries can
only be
a good thing for SI, I would have thought.
$ umount /soapbox
Tim Churches
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