[R-sig-Debian] OT: Problems updating OS to deal with fading R support for Ubuntu Hardy Heron...

[Vincent Goulet]

Le dim. 4 juil. à 19:33, Brian Lunergan a écrit :

> Evening folks:
> 
> Not sure where this fits into the picture so bear with me for a few
> moments while I think out loud to lay out the particulars of my problem.
> 
> -would love to be employed using R for a living but so far I have just
> worked with it on my home machine to develop a basic level of skill with
> it.
> -I run Ubuntu linux 8.04 LTS on a machine with a 2.5GHz Celeron
> processor and 1.2GB of memory. The Heron runs sprightly enough to suit
> on that combination.
> -noted on Cran that with the intro of the newest LTS edition, Lucid
> Lynx, support for the Heron is continued on suffrage only.
> -So, I tried to upgrade. Tried both Kubuntu and Ubuntu. Kubuntu dialled
> out and connected to my ISP but failed to get anywhere after
> authentication, Ubuntu failed to recognize my 3.5" A drive, and they
> were both unbelievably sluggish on my system so out they both go and I'm
> in the process of getting things set back up the way I had them with
> 8.04.
> 
> I realize this more OS than R, but I thought someone in the group might
> have some ideas or suggestions they'd care to share, off-list of course.
> Is there a way around this situation that doesn't involve huge outlays
> in new hardware? Is there another flavour of Linux that would work with
> my system and allow me to maintain a toe hold in the R camp so that I've
> got it as a marketable skill somewhere down the road? Any thoughts would
> be appreciated.

We don't want to guarantee LTS (as per Ubuntu) support of R for Hardy since our past experience in trying to do this for Dapper Drake proved hurtful. However, at the time, both R and Debian/Ubuntu releases changed a lot and we had to manually undo many changes to compile R on Dapper. 

So far, Hardy has been a no brainer. If things continue like that for a while, you should get fresh R binaries regularly. But things may change very quickly. I'm afraid if you want to stay on Hardy, you may eventually have to either live with an older release of R or compile it yourself.

Regards,

Vincent Goulet
École d'actuariat, Université Laval