Last week I was busy setting up my IBM laptop with the freshly installed Ubuntu 9.10 (code named Karmic Koala). The transition from Windows Vista Business (64bit) to Linux was smooth, thanks to my many years of experience with Linux, in general. I never used Ubuntu before, my experience was limited to the old RedHat, Fedora, and Slackware (that was in 2003). I wanted to give Ubuntu a try, and I never regretted my decision. However, I must thank Dr Mahbub Latif for encouragement. He is such an inspirer that I had made the switch immediately.
What did I miss?
Nothing much. Vista's graphics was slick and smoother than what I get in Ubuntu. Apart from the outlook, I did not really miss any software but one. I missed DPP (Digital Photo Professional), a photo editing software for my DSLR.
Computing with R
Linux (or Unix)-based operating systems are regarded as more advantageous than Windows-bases systems when it comes to computing. The graphical interface might be more appealing to the human eye but the robustness and stability of Unix-like system blows Windows out.
Running multiple sessions of R on a Linux machine is a snap. I needed a WinEdt-like environment to edit R codes. After searching the net, I found some neat solutions based on gedit Gnome editor, and Emacs.
I've written a guide on Rgedit, the gedit-based editor (IDE) for R statistical package. It is lightweight, simple, easy, and very intuitive. Please see it at http://www.stattler.com/article/using-gedit-or-rgeidt-r
I am currently trying Emacs with ESS (Emacs Speaks Statistics), the most popular software among the seasoned R programmers. I will write a short note on Emacs+ESS soon.
You may try rkward for R if you want a GUI for R.
ReplyDelete@ Nasim bhai
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I was actually not looking for GUI but a good editor for R. I think Emacs + ESS is the best combo. I am using ESS now.