[R] Linux Distribution Choice

[Roger Bivand]

On Sun, 19 Feb 2006, Graham Smith wrote:

> I am making some tentative steps into using Linux (Mandriva at the moment)
> and notice that not all the Linux binaries on CRAN are the latest release.
> 
> As R (plus Grass) will be key programs for me on Linux, is there a preferred
> Linux distribution that people in the R communiuty use?

There are a fair number of distributions out there, and often users find
that even though they have installed an R binary, they cannot successfully
install R contributed packages because their build train is incomplete,
and/or they lack development components. Building R from source on modern
Linux distributions is not difficult, and will let you check whether you
can install R contributed packages with C, C++, or Fortran source code.  
Essentially the same concerns apply to GRASS, and particularly to the
software GRASS depends on, crucially GDAL/OGR. 

While learning to install from source may seem challenging, it is worth
doing especially when you would like to work using several linked
applications. The R-GRASS interface is developed on RHEL4, I believe a
lead GRASS developer also uses RHEL, but others use Mandriva and many more
Debian, Ubuntu, and so on. If you'd like a taster, Quantian (0.7.9.1) has
GRASS 6.0.1, GDAL 1.2.6, and r-base 2.2.0 (none the latest releases, but
perhaps enough to try out).

If in doubt about a distribution, consider what support resources are 
close to you. "gmail.com" isn't very informative, but many organisationa 
and universities do have Linux policies, and choosing a distribution that 
maximises the chances to being able to talk to someone using the same 
distribution is sensible, even if it isn't the one you though of first. 
Chapter 2 of http://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/R-admin.html is helpful 
reading if you decide to install from source.

> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> Graham
> 
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> 
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-- 
Roger Bivand
Economic Geography Section, Department of Economics, Norwegian School of
Economics and Business Administration, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen,
Norway. voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 95 43
e-mail: Roger.Bivand at nhh.no