[R-sig-Debian] REvolution R sneaking inside Ubuntu ???

[Martin Maechler]

Read this on R-help,
subject  "[R] Ubuntu, Revolutions, R".

I can hardly believe it's true and at the moment suspect
that Andrew has a very unusual '/etc/apt/sources.list' or
(an analogoue of that)

Any qualified comments, 
Dirk Eddelbuettel, Vincent Goulet, ??

Martin


>>>>> "AC" == Andrew Choens <andy.choens at gmail.com>
>>>>>     on Sun, 4 Oct 2009 23:40:44 -0400 writes:

    AC> For those who don't follow Ubuntu development carefully,
    AC> the first Beta for the next Ubuntu was recently
    AC> released, so I took my home system and upgraded to help
    AC> out with filing bugs, etc.

    AC> Just to be clear, I am not looking for help with the
    AC> upgrade process. I've had R, and a few miscellaneous
    AC> CRAN packages installed on this computer for years.
    AC> Today, when I loaded an R session I had developed before
    AC> the upgrade, I saw something new in my R "welcome
    AC> message".

    >> 
    >> R version 2.9.2 (2009-08-24)
    >> Copyright (C) 2009 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
    >> ISBN 3-900051-07-0
    >> 
    >> R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
    >> You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
    >> Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.
    >> 
    >> R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
    >> Type 'contributors()' for more information and
    >> 'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.
    >> 
    >> 
    >> This is REvolution R version 3.0.0:
    >> the optimized distribution of R from REvolution Computing.
    >> REvolution R enhancements Copyright (C) REvolution Computing, Inc.
    >> 
    >> Checking for REvolution MKL:
    >> - REvolution R enhancements not installed.
    >> For improved performance and other extensions: apt-get install revolution-r

    AC> The last part, about this being the "enhanced" version of R was . . . 
    AC> unexpected.  I have heard of this company before and now I've spent some time 
    AC> on their website. Looking at my installation, Ubuntu did not install any of 
    AC> the REvolution Computing components, although R now basically thows a warning 
    AC> every time I start it.

    AC> My question(s) for the community is this (pick any question(s) you like to 
    AC> answer: 
    AC>   Should I install the REvolution Computing packages? 
    AC>   Do these packages really make R faster? 
    AC>   Are these packages stable? 
    AC>   What are your experiences with REvolution Computing software?

    AC> I am interested in hearing from members of the community, REvolution Computing 
    AC> employees/supporters (although please ID yourself as such) and most anyone 
    AC> else. I can see what they say on their website, but I'm interested in getting 
    AC> other opinions too.

    AC> Thanks!

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