Installing and setting up R

The official website of R is the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) at www.cran.r-project.org. At the time of writing, the most recent version of R is 3.4.1. This software is available for the three platforms: Linux, macOS X, and Windows.

The CRAN Website (snapshot)

A Linux user may simply key in sudo apt-get install r-base in the Terminal, and post the return of the right password and privilege levels, and the R software would be installed. After the completion of the download and installation, the software is started by simply keying in R in the Terminal.

A Windows user needs to perform the following steps:

1. Firstly, click on Download R for Windows, as shown in the preceding screenshot.
2. Then in the base subdirectory click on install R for the first time.
3. In the new window, click on Download R 3.4.0 for Windows and download the .exe file to a directory of your choice.
4. The completely downloaded R-3.0.0-win.exe file can be installed as any other .exe file.
5. The R software may be invoked either from the Start menu, or from the icon on the desktop. The installed versions of R in Windows and Linux appears as follows: