[R] Ideal Computer and Software (A bit off topic)

[Don MacQueen]

I'd like to mention that if using the desktop applications such as MS 
Word, Excel, Powerpoint, email software, Acrobat Reader, etc. is 
important to you, then the Mac may be a better choice than a Linux 
box. Mac OS X lets you use all of those, and also work at the unix 
level, side by side and simultaneously, on the same machine.

On a Mac you can run R either with a GUI analagous to that of R for 
Windows, or you can run it as a command line app, as on Linux.

I can't help with performance comparison questions, or the 64 bit 
issue, I'm sorry to say.

-Don

At 11:41 AM -0800 3/17/05, KKThird at Yahoo.Com wrote:
>Hello everyone.
>
>This question might be a bit off topic, but I thought
>that (a) there couldn't be a better group to address
>my questions and (b) that others might find it useful
>too; It also might start an interesting discussion
>thread. 
>
>I use R often for simulation purposes (which generally
>involve a lot of for() loops) and for most of my
>general work. I will be purchasing a new computing
>system soon, and I'm wondering the best way to go. I'm
>a Windows user now, and from what I know and have read
>about Linux, it is what I should be using (or possibly
>a Unix machine). I'm not wedded to a Windows system
>and I'm willing to put in the time to learn Linux if
>it would truly be beneficial. Is it the case that
>Linux offers so much more than Windows that it is
>definitely worth the switch?
>
>For the hardware issue, is it generally better to run
>R on a server and then connect to the server or on a
>stand alone computer (Obviously the performance would
>be related to the specific hardware, but if the
>hardware was essentially equal, would there be any
>advantage to either?).

A server might have other users using competing with you for cpu cycles.
A server might have a more reliable backup policy (or might not!).
A server might or might not have security patches and OS upgrades 
done more promptly.
If you need to transfer content from R (text output or graphics 
files) into reports or presentations,
it might be easier with a local machine, depending on whether the 
server shares file systems.


>
>What seems to be better for using R on, an Intel, AMD,
>Unix, or Mac (which I suppose is now a Unix)
>processor? In terms of speed, again given the
>analogous hardware, is there an advantage to one of
>these?
>
>Does it make sense to get a 64 bit AMD processor, or
>is that just an overkill? Would R even make use of the
>64 bit processing power?
>
>I'm very interested on any thoughts people have on
>this. I'm a big user of computers, but I'm not overly
>knowledgeable about their inner workings.
>
>Thanks and have a nice day,
>Ken
>
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-- 
--------------------------------------
Don MacQueen
Environmental Protection Department
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Livermore, CA, USA