[R] Linux, UNIX, XP32, Vista X64 or ...? [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

[Gabor Grothendieck]

On Jan 29, 2008 2:30 PM, Patrick Connolly <p_connolly at slingshot.co.nz> wrote:
> On Sun, 27-Jan-2008 at 07:38PM -0500, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>
> |> On the PC there is a builtin GUI but not on UNIX and there are
> |> some packages that are OS specific in which case you might
> |> get more or less selection but probably more.  Also depending
> |> on the specific system you may have greater difficulty installing
> |> certain packages due to the need to compile them on UNIX
> |> and the possibility exists that you don't quite have the right
> |> libraries.  On Windows you get binaries so this is not a problem.
> |> I have repeatedly found that common packages that I took
> |> for granted on Windows had some problem with installation
> |> on UNIX and I had to hunt around and figure out what the problem
> |> was with my UNIDX libraries or possibly some other problem.
> |> For all R packages this won't be a problem but for packages
> |> that use C and FORTRAN this can be.  Although I am lumping
> |> all UNIX systems together I think this varies quite a bit from
> |> one particular type/distro of UNIX/Linux to another and I suspect if you
> |> are careful in picking out the right one (if you have a choice) you
> |> will actually have zero problems.
>
> I've had a fair bit of experience with Redhat/Fedora/CentOS and with
> Mepis distros.  I've had zero problems compiling R or packages.
>
> The only problem I've had is with *using* a package which uses R code
> to hard-wire graphic options that don't suit X11, postscript or pdf
> devices.  Virually every other package I've used doesn't hard-wire
> graphic options, so that problem never arises.
>

I assume you are referring to 32 bit FC because I certainly have had
library problelms on 64 bit FC.