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 > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > [email protected] mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > -- 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: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
