R language + statistical software
With IBM buying SPSS I figured it is a good time to talk about what I think is the best statistical software package available: R, which is a proper computer language based on S. It can also use C, C++ and Fortran for more computationally intensive tasks.
The free-to-download software package can be used to conduct all the typical statistical data manipulations including linear and generalized linear models, nonlinear regression models, time series analysis, classical parametric and nonparametric tests, clustering and smoothing. Also, there are many powerful data visualization functions that can be used to create some really useful and publishable graphics. I never liked the fact that SPSS tables and graphs always had to be re-rendered in another program in order to clean them up and get them publication-ready.
There’s also a huge community of R developers and users and the support for this program is awesome. Since this is an open source package under the GNU General Public License, all data manipulation functions are visible and can be verified so there should be no question that your results really are telling you what you think they are telling you.
There’s a lot of information on the R site including: Manuals, FAQs, The R Journal, Wiki, and Books so you should be able to get most if not all of your questions answered there.
Oh yea, did I mention it was free?
