[R] R on Linux, and R on Windows , any difference in maturity+stability?

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 10/6/2009 1:17 PM, Kjetil Halvorsen wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 11:23 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
>> On 10/6/2009 10:34 AM, Jose Quesada wrote:
>>>
>>> Robert Wilkins <iwritecode2 <at> gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Will R have more glitches on one operating system as opposed to
>>>> another, or is it pretty much the same?
>>>>
>>>> robert
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> One important difference is that, if you are unsing large datasets and
>>> need
>>> memory, then windows is by far the worst. CRAN R is 32 bit and can only
>>> address 1.5 Gb of memory (or something similar; I
>>> don't really understand why).
>>
>> By default, 32 bit Windows only gives 2 Gb for all the user processes to
>> share, and saves the rest of memory for itself.  You can change this (see
>> the Windows FAQ), but the most you'll ever get is 3 Gb in 32 bit Windows,
> 
> 
>>                 _____and a bit under 4 Gb in 64 bit Windows.________
>>
> 
> That sounds incredible. ¿Why so?

When running a 32 bit program, 64 bit Windows hides most of itself 
outside the address space visible to the program, so almost all of the 4 
Gb address space is available to the user.  But no more: no matter how 
much RAM you install, it's not possible to address it using a 32 bit 
address.

Duncan Murdoch

> 
> Kjetil
> 
>> Duncan Murdoch
>>
>>>
>>> While there's a 64-bit version of R for windows (revolution-computing.com)
>>> I
>>> would advise against using it, for several reasons. While revolution has
>>> provided very nice packages to the community (e.g., foreach), the win-64
>>> port as
>>> of today is certainly the worst platform to do work on. Reasons:
>>> (1) it's R 2.7.2
>>> (2) Many important packages will never be ported
>>> (3) Some packages (particularly those depending on Rjava) would not work
>>> properly
>>> (4) There's a proprietary repository, where most packages are outrageously
>>> outdated. (5) Most help you find on R-help will not apply. Instead, you
>>> have 'paid'
>>> support. Said support is slow, and close to useless in most cases.
>>> (6) Packages that rely on external tools (e.g., mysql) will take a lot of
>>> work
>>> to get going.
>>> And of course, one have to pay for a yearly license, to have the privilege
>>> to
>>> work under the above conditions.
>>>
>>> If you need 64-bit right now, my advice is to switch to basically any
>>> other
>>> platform.
>>>
>>> Note: this may change any time, since they are working on a continuous
>>> build
>>> that will keep the releases in sync with mainstream R.
>>>
>>> Jose Quesada, PhD.
>>> Max Planck Institute, Human Development, Berlin
>>> http://www.josequesada.name/
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>