[R] off-topic: better OS for statistical computing

[Gabor Grothendieck]

My sense is that R users are even split between UNIX and Windows
users so either will do in terms of the larger community.

Some R packages may not be avaliable on every platform or will
be available on one platform before another or there will be
certain platform-specific issues.  So in the end its easiest to
have the same thing everyone else that you work with does.

Also if you run into
problems then you can ask others whereas if you are the lone
person with something different you have no one to turn to.

Also associated software may be, for example, Microsoft Office in
a Microsoft environment and LaTeX in a UNIX environment. And
networking will be simplified in a consistent environment too.
Certainly there is Open Office, Samba and putty but the easiest
is just not to have to worry about getting everything to work
together by just having the same thing in the first place.

Neither Linux nor Windows is superior to the other.  People
making such representations generally know one much better
than the other and its more a reflection of their own experience
than anything else.  I personally have used both UNIX and
Windows since their inception and find that I tend to have a
slight preference for whatever I used last.  Technical merits of
one vs. the other are basically irrelevant for most purposes.

On 9/10/07, Patrick Connolly <p_connolly at ihug.co.nz> wrote:
> On Mon, 10-Sep-2007 at 12:26PM -0400, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>
> |> You want whatever all the people you are working with are using
> |> to make it as easy as possible to work together with them.
>
> Assuming you're using R, there is negligible difficulty using a
> different OS from what your colleagues use (apart from the
> inconsistencies you get between different versions of Windows, but
> even that has little effect on R).  The standard .RData binary files
> work with Windows and Linux (and probably OS X).
>
> The only issue I come across is that Linux can't create WMF files as
> readily as Windows can, and that is more than made up for by the
> greater flexibility that Linux offers.  It's easier in Linux to
> produce Excel files from dataframes and matrices using a perl script
> posted to this list by Marc Schwartz.  Thanks again Marc.
>
> Best
>
> Patrick
>
>
> |>
> |> On 9/10/07, Wensui Liu <liuwensui at gmail.com> wrote:
> |> > Good morning, everyone,
> |> > I am sorry for this off-topic post but think I can get great answer
> |> > from this list.
> |> > My question is what is the best OS on PC (laptop) for statistical
> |> > computing and why.
> |> > I really appreciate your insight.
> |> > Have a nice day.
> |>
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> --
> ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
>   ___    Patrick Connolly
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