[R] Newbie question: what are the advantages?

[hzi]

Hi -

    I´m a medical graduate student. I´m totally new to R, although I had heard of S before. I read it was GNU free software, and since I also use Linux, I decide to check it out.
    But I have some doubts regarding R: how does using R differ from using software packages, like SPSS (which is the one I´m used to)? What are the advantages of using R when compared? Is flexibility an issue? What about the learning curve? Is it something that is awfully hard to learn? And the documentation seems to be rather sparse, unless you´re willling to buy a book (no, I´m not some "cheap" person, I´m a student from Brazil - things are not so cheap for me...which is one of the reasons free software is attractive to me).
    Thank you,
    Best regards to all.

    Henry 
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