
RStudio requires R version 2.11.1 or higher, which can be downloaded here The Comprehensive R Archive Network (). You can install a desktop or server version, however I find for personal use the desktop install and user experience easier to manage. There are 2 installations that are required, the R language and the RStudio front end. The installation on a Mac is simple and straight forward. R has a large active community and provides functions and extensions to the tool set through external libraries which can be imported as you need and discover them. How often has the software been updated?.The main criteria I look for are based on how large and active the tool’s community is. The trouble with adding open-source software to your workflow is to make sure that the tool is active and updated regularly. This tool would appeal to the power user analyst or a user with more of a programming background. The tools are more command line and have a programming style than a point-and-click tool such as Microsoft’s Excel. The combination of the two provides a powerful data analysis toolset.

RStudio is a free and open-source integrated development environment that puts a user interface over the R command line back end. R is a statistical computing and graphics language available as free software under the GNU general public license.
#Downloading r and rstudio for mac mac os
This article will review setting R Studio and R on Mac OS There is a free option for RStudio provides a powerful analysis tool to organizations without taking a large hit to the budget.


Getting outside my comfort zone and learning new tools can always spur creativity and the open-source community has a great many tools just waiting to be discovered. I have fallen in love with the R language and toolset over the last few weeks.
