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help on determining operating system

4 messages · LU YING, Mihalis Tsoukalos, Don MacQueen +1 more

LU YING
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Dear list,

I am an R user and I also write my own package in R(sometime i need to 
write  in C), and right now i am thinking about buying a new 
workstation--and i am trying to decide if i should get 
a mac with OS X or a linux machine (for example Dell).

I have experience using R on linux (but i have been just a user and never 
been a admin) but i am hesitating of managing a linux system on my own 
(btw I would like to have my new workstation to be used as a server), so 
right now I am leaning toward of buying a Mac Pro. But from the website, 
it sounds like R doesnt work quite well with Mac operating system 
yet...so I was wondering if anybody here have any experiences of 
using/developing R package on a Mac machine? Is it smooth enough?

(oh by the way, i am not a Mac user yet, Windows has been the primary 
operating system that i used, but after hearing many good things 
of OS X, I am really interested in switching over.)

any suggestions are appreciated!

Ying


Ying Lu
Assistant Professor
Dept. Sociology
U-Colorado at Boulder
Mihalis Tsoukalos
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On Tue 12 Dec 2006, at 06:40 , LU YING wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
Hi Ying.

I am using R on both a PowerMac and a MacBook. I do not do any  
development but as far as using R I do not have any problems.
Please note that software such as Parallels (http:// 
www.parallels.com), allows you to run Linux on a Mac Intel (such as  
Mac Pro) without problems, in case you need it.

Feel free to ask more questions,
Mihalis.

----
Mac for Productivity, Unix for Development, and Windows for Solitaire

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Don MacQueen
    

    

      
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R works very well with the Mac operating system, in my experience.

Packages with simple C should be easy; I have several packages of my 
own that use Fortran, just one or two subroutines each, and I have no 
difficulty building them.

I'm no expert, but as I understand it, Apple has done some things on 
the unix side that are somewhat different than what you'll see on a 
typical Linux; if you try to work with what Apple has done, in the 
way that Apple has designed it to be used, you will have a lot to 
learn. But I've done just fine without it for my rather simple needs.

In my opinion, if you want to use mainstream desktop applications 
like Microsoft Office and also work in a unix-like environment, on 
the same computer, OS X is the way to go. You can run R in 
command-line mode at a unix prompt, as on Linux, or using the console 
app, similar to how it's done on Windows.

-Don

        
At 9:40 PM -0700 12/11/06, LU  YING wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Kenneth Benoit
    

    

      
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Hi - I don't want to ignite any holy wars, but for 10 years until last 
year I used Linux, I occasionally use a Windows machine at home, and 
last year switched to Mac OS.  Of all the GUIs for R out there, the mac 
is the best by far IMHO.  And R on my macbook is faster than on a 
pentium 4 3.2GHz running either linux or win xp.

Ken

        
LU YING wrote: