topic Re: Why SAS is not free ?? in All Things Community

Why SAS is not free ??

arunrami — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 16:03:57 GMT

Hello Guys,

It's been few years since I started using SAS for different data management stuffs and analytics .

so far in my experience I feel it is very easy to learn programming language/package for data oriented applications.

I see lot of similarities between SAS and Python when it comes to data handling , but unfortunately SAS is not that popular now a days comparatively . One of the main reason I have relaised is "COST" , SAS is not cost free like other languages , we need to pay and get license for all the packages and that stopping lot new programmers to pick SAS for ML applications (including me).

I would love to use SAS for different Machine learning application if it is free of cost !!!!!!

I believe some one from SAS team may see this , I want to know why SAS is not free of cost for everyone atlease base SAS , you can make money for all other modules!!! 🙂

WHY SAS IS NOT FREE OF COST ???

Re: Why SAS is not free ??

PaigeMiller — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 16:10:49 GMT

Most major software companies charge for their software.

Re: Why SAS is not free ??

Reeza — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 16:25:45 GMT

@arunrami wrote:

Hello Guys,

It's been few years since I started using SAS for different data management stuffs and analytics .

so far in my experience I feel it is very easy to learn programming language/package for data oriented applications.

I see lot of similarities between SAS and Python when it comes to data handling , but unfortunately SAS is not that popular now a days comparatively . One of the main reason I have relaised is "COST" , SAS is not cost free like other languages , we need to pay and get license for all the packages and that stopping lot new programmers to pick SAS for ML applications (including me).

I would love to use SAS for different Machine learning application if it is free of cost !!!!!!

I believe some one from SAS team may see this , I want to know why SAS is not free of cost for everyone atlease base SAS , you can make money for all other modules!!! 🙂

WHY SAS IS NOT FREE OF COST ???

Because people like to get paid for their work.

Would you like to work for free and give away everything you do?

FOSS is primarily driven by academics who are paid with public funds and companies who usually leverage this for free and don't pay developers. Some people turn this into jobs but not all. Free Open source has many issues itself - primarily, support for packages, too many packages for common tasks, dependency hell. It also sucks to use software where there is little to no backwards compatibility especially when you're building a business.

Re: Why SAS is not free ??

ballardw — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 16:30:48 GMT

Who has a vested interest in solving your problem when the software does not work as expected with a 'free' open source program?

The fees for SAS mean that you have access to actual tech support that is pretty darned good and will really work with you to solve problems.

That's likely one of the things that can affect most.

Other stuff that goes on the background like benchmarking, testing and developing the algorithms for the procedures to run efficiently and accurately with large data sets may not be noticed. Until you try to use something no one actually tested with terabyte sized data sets.

I haven't used Python so can't address that specifically. However I have been involved with a number of open source programs and every one has severe issues with getting new users started and often just getting through installation is frustrating as you keep finding more dependencies not included in the installation or actually incompatible with something else you have because it requires an older or newer version of some infrequently updated binary file.

Re: Why SAS is not free ??

Reeza — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 16:35:03 GMT

And SAS maintenance cost are similar to RStudio Pro or Anaconda by the way, so not out of the ballpark of what enterprise companies use.

Re: Why SAS is not free ??

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 19:39:36 GMT

And I want a unicorn.

Re: Why SAS is not free ??

SASKiwi — Sat, 16 Nov 2019 07:05:12 GMT

SAS spends hundreds of millions of dollars enhancing and improving their software, including its machine-learning capabilities. The money to pay for this has to come from somewhere.

Re: Why SAS is not free ??

ChrisHemedinger — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 14:12:52 GMT

SAS does have free offerings, especially for learning and research.

Check out SAS University Edition, free for any learner (not just those enrolled in university).

And if you don't want to install anything but run SAS in the cloud, we have SAS OnDemand for Academics.