Knime
6/10
[See all reviews for Knime]
Functionality
35%
Usability
15%
Security
10%
Performance & Scalability
10%
Architecture & Quality
10%
Support & Documentation
10%
Adoption & Community
10%
Weighted Average
Iterator
| 2007-08-27
Usability
15%
Security
10%
Performance & Scalability
10%
Architecture & Quality
10%
Support & Documentation
10%
Adoption & Community
10%
Weighted Average
KNIME comes with a nice graphical user interface (GUI), that strongly reminds me of SPSS Clementine and WEKA Knowledge Flow Editor. So the GUI looks familiar for SPSS users looking for a low-cost alternative. KNIME is based on the machine learning toolbox WEKA. WEKA is open-source software under GNU GPL license. However, KNIME is not available under GNU GPL and it is not for free for commercial use. Judge by yourself, if this is fair use of GPL software like WEKA. The functionality does not go much beyond what WEKA already offers. The so-called pipeline architecture is not that exciting. In all data mining tools, the data is processed through a number of data mining steps like in a pipeline. So what is the big deal about that? If I had to choose between KNIME and WEKA, I would prefer WEKA, because it is really free and open-source. If I could choose another freely available open-source data mining tool, I would rather pick RapidMiner, because of its wider range of functionality and greater flexibility. And also because it is available under GNU GPL.
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Review Comments
KNIME is not based on WEKA
Well KNIME is not based on WEKA but integrates some functionality of WEKA like it also enables the user to use R via KNIME. Any other external tool can also be integrated.
By the way, KNIME is not a machine learning tool like WEKA but a data mining tool. Thus, it comes around with a lot of data I/O, preprocessing, data cleansing functionality. In addition to the statistical, machine learning, and data mining algorithms and visualization methods.
(anonymous | 2007-09-16)
Well KNIME is not based on WEKA but integrates some functionality of WEKA like it also enables the user to use R via KNIME. Any other external tool can also be integrated.
By the way, KNIME is not a machine learning tool like WEKA but a data mining tool. Thus, it comes around with a lot of data I/O, preprocessing, data cleansing functionality. In addition to the statistical, machine learning, and data mining algorithms and visualization methods.
(anonymous | 2007-09-16)
KNIME/Weka clarification
Before this gives the wrong impression, let me clarify it (and yes, I am involved with KNIME - who does "Iterator" work for? ;-)
KNIME is not based on Weka - it only wraps the data mining algorithms of Weka. Those wrappers are, of course, available under GPL. We talked to the Weka guys about this and they did not have a problem with this GPL-compatible setup. KNIME is perfectly functionable without Weka, which is one of the reasons why the Weka plugin is downloadable as an _optional_ extension. KNIME itself has a number of data mining algorithms build in and especially all of the interactive visualizations are 100% own KNIME code.
Also, KNIME is free for commercial use - however, if you plan to make money out of selling addons or support to KNIME a different license applies.
I am not going to comment on the pipelining pro/con story - this is a matter of personal taste and application at hand, obviously.
Cheers, Michael (Berthold)
(anonymous | 2007-09-16)
Before this gives the wrong impression, let me clarify it (and yes, I am involved with KNIME - who does "Iterator" work for? ;-)
KNIME is not based on Weka - it only wraps the data mining algorithms of Weka. Those wrappers are, of course, available under GPL. We talked to the Weka guys about this and they did not have a problem with this GPL-compatible setup. KNIME is perfectly functionable without Weka, which is one of the reasons why the Weka plugin is downloadable as an _optional_ extension. KNIME itself has a number of data mining algorithms build in and especially all of the interactive visualizations are 100% own KNIME code.
Also, KNIME is free for commercial use - however, if you plan to make money out of selling addons or support to KNIME a different license applies.
I am not going to comment on the pipelining pro/con story - this is a matter of personal taste and application at hand, obviously.
Cheers, Michael (Berthold)
(anonymous | 2007-09-16)
