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How well R competes with SPSS?

• TalGalili 15y ago
  In what metric? The GUI of SPSS is better then R (which doesn't have a GUI, though interesting competitors are available like Rcmdr and Deducer). In terms of everything else (performance, graphics, statistical tools, programming language), then from what I understand - R is the winner without a doubt...
  • singingfish 15y ago
    SPSS comes from the school of "you don't need to know what you're doing in order to analyse data". R requires that you understand what it is what you want to do in order to make it work. I quite like the middle ground of JMP (kind of SAS lite), and its a damned sight cheaper than SPSS too.
  • spp 15y ago
    I learned R some time ago in university. I've heard of lots of newly graduated colleagues that now work doing "SPSS consulting" (whatever that means) for big businesses. But I can't really see how you could use R to parse financial data, becaule I lack the financial background to understand what it means. Maybe that's what SPSS provides, and what singingfish means with "you don't need to know what you're doing".
    • billswift 15y ago
      Actually, I read his comment as meaning that SPSS was more useful for the sort of "cookbook stat" usually taught in business schools.