I think their real issue with legality stems from many of the professors not
being familiar with free open source software. Many of them still use Windows
and SPSS simply because it is all they have ever known. I have been working to
change this, by introducing programs like open office and GIMP.
Thanks for your reply, you have given me some talking points to use when I
demonstrate PSPP to the proffs.
You guys should know that I went ahead and ran some basic stats with my data
set on version .6 and everything came back perfectly mathematically correct. In
fact, I actually like that PSPP does not automatically round decimals. I was a
little concerned though that I could not figure out how to create a scatter
plot or bar graph, but like I said, I was using the older software.
I look forward to testing the new version. If there are any specific tests you
would like to see done, let me know and I will focus on them as well.
Nicholas Smith
PhD Candidate
Auburn University
334-524-1911
smit...@auburn.edu
John Darrington <j...@darrington.wattle.id.au> wrote:
The reaction of your professors is entirely appropriate. A healthy skepticism
is essential in any academic endeavour. At least that's what I learned in my
PhD candidature. I trust however that such skepticism will be applied equally
to all statistical anaylisis software - not just to PSPP.
One advantage that PSPP has over its proprietary counterparts, such as spss, is
that its implementation is open to scrutiny, comment and critical review.
This means that any problems with its algorithms are likely to be caught,
published and corrected. Whereas in the case of proprietary software one has
no idea of how accurate it is or is not.
If anybody has any information to suggest that PSPP is "not legal" they
should notify the FSF lawyers with these concerns.
J'
On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 06:11:21PM +0000, Nicholas Smith wrote:
Hey,
My name is Nicholas Smith and I am a PhD candidate at Auburn University in
Public Policy. I recently found your software and after reviewing it, was
extremely impressed. I started evangelizing on campus to my peers about your
software but I was met with considerable skepticism, especially by my
professors, that the software might not be legal or may not be statistically
accurate.
Well, as an open source advocate, I could not stand by and let this
happen. Tonight, I will be running a data set in both SPSS and PSPP. I will
post screenshots of both, along with all the tables and graphs. If they turn
out to be the same, the professors will no longer be skeptical and I can
continue to advocate for PSPP. I figured this might be helpful to you guys as
well, so I will email you my findings.
Nicholas Smith
PhD Candidate
Auburn University
334-524-1911
smit...@auburn.edu
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