[R] Justifying R to anti open-source management

[Peter Baker (CMIS, St Lucia)]

Hi

I apologise for this question as it really must be a FAQ. Unfortunately, 
I can't find the answer and I'm tired of looking at endless google results

A colleague of mine works for a state government department that has a
policy against open source software or software tainted by open
source. Other government departments in the same state use R but this
particular department is driven by very non-numerate people and
superficially at least it appears somewhat backward IT-wise.  The
department may purchase SPlus (which may be better for non programmer
types anyway) or SPSS but it would nice to have the option to use R

The Q:

Are there any documents/reports/papers out there justifying R that
comment on
- quality of R
- huge range of libraries available 
- support (via a huge and enthusiastic user base - any ideas on how
    many people use R)

I suspect that providing existing documents would carry more weight
rather than writing a case from scratch or providing people's email
opinions

Thanks in advance!

Cheers
Peter

-- 
Dr Peter Baker, Statistician (Bioinformatics/Genetics),
CSIRO Mathematical & Information Sciences, Queensland Bioscience Precinct
306 Carmody Road, St Lucia Qld 4067.   Australia.
Email: <Peter.Baker at csiro.au>  WWW: http://www.cmis.csiro.au/Peter.Baker/
Phone: +61 7 3214 2210         Fax: +61 7 3214 2900