3.3 Getting RStudio on to your computer

RStudio is an R interface developed by a company of the same name. RStudio has a number of commercial products, but much of their portfolio is freeware. You can download RStudio from their website www.rstudio.com/ . The download page (www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/) is a bit busy because it shows all of their commercial products; the free version is on the far left side of the table of products. Click on the big green DOWNLOAD button under the column on the left that says “RStudio Desktop Open Source License” (or click on this link ).

This will scroll you down to a list of downloads titled “Installers for Supported Platforms.” Windows users can select the top option RStudio 1.1.456 - Windows Vista/7/8/10 and Mac the second option RStudio 1.1.456 - Mac OS X 10.6+ (64-bit). (Versions names are current of 8/16/2018).

Run the installer after it downloads and accept the default. RStudio will automatically link up with the most current version of R you have on your computer. Find the RStudio icon on your desktop or search for “RStudio” from your task bar and you’ll be read to go.

3.3.1 Keep R and RStudio current

Both R and RStudio undergo regular updates and you will occasionally have to re-download and install one or both of them. In practice I probably do this about every 6 months.