[R] Power PC with a linux distribution and R

[Steve Revilak]

> Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:30:46 -0400
> From: "stephen sefick"
> Subject: [R] Power PC with a linux distribution and R
> 
> This is an operating system question, but it is with the intent of
> using R on that operating system.  I have an ibook G4 Power PC that I
> am going to install linux on.  Is there a better, worse, or perhaps
> easier (I am a linux newby migrating from mac) distribution that I
> should look at.  I appreciate your help.  I didn't post this in the
> sig-mac because I don't know if it fits there better than anywhere
> else.
> thanks

I have an iBook G4 (1 GHz, 1.25 GB RAM) that's running Debian.
Debian's installer is pretty friendly.  For me, the most difficult
part of the installation was getting 3-button mouse emulation to work
with the iBook's 1-button keypad.  Beyond that, the installation and
setup was easy.

Why did I install Debian on an iBook?  Curiosity more than anything
else.  I've worked with Redhat-based linux distibutions for years, and
I wanted to see what Debian was like.

One thing you might want to keep in mind -- some of Debian's PPC
packages are a little on the old side (for example, R 2.4.0).  That
may or may not be an issue for you.

On Mac OS, you may want to try running R in an X11 xterm (as opposed
to running R.app); that's essentially what you'll see under Linux..

Steve