The Bioinformatics Blog

In a previous Bioinformatics Toolchest post I discussed R, a statistical programming software that I’m a big fan of. Today the New York Times had a business computing article discussing the use of R in academics and business. From my own experience, I think the use of R is pretty extensive in the right academic circles. But there are some corporate giants such as Google and Pfizer that are listed as users of R as well. Historically most of these types of statistical analyses for academics, government, and corporate uses were performed using SAS. I don’t have any problem with SAS, but I’m a proponent of the current shift toward using free software. Still being a student, I can’t afford to pay for software. Having free alternatives like R available give me a chance to use powerful software at an affordable cost, while still giving a wealth of features.

The grant environment for academic research is pretty hostile right now. In a time when funds are drying up, I know that I’d rather use a free alternative than pay for an individual license for each computer in my lab.

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