R is a statistical language that has become extremely popular over the last 3-5 years, especially as a platform that can be used for a wide variety of use cases, ranging from simple data mining to complex machine learning algorithms. According to an article posted in IEEE Spectrum in mid-2016, R takes the No. 5 spot among the Top 10 languages in the world.

Open source R can be downloaded from https://www.r-project.org via the CRAN site located at https://cran.r-project.org/mirrors.html.

Alternatively, you can download R from the Microsoft R Open page at https://mran.microsoft.com/rro/. This was earlier known as Revolution R Open, an enhanced version of open source R released by Revolution Analytics. After Microsoft acquired Revolution Analytics in 2015, it was rebranded under the new ownership.

Microsoft R Open includes all the functionalities of R, but also includes the following:

• Numerous R packages installed by default as well as a set of specialized packages released by Microsoft Corporation that complements the existing features of open source R
• Multi-threaded Math Libraries for multi-threaded computations in R
• A fixed CRAN Repository called MRAN. CRAN, the Comprehensive R Archive Network is a collection of sites that contains R binaries, packages, and associated content. Packages on CRAN can be updated on a continuous basis. MRAN takes a fixed snapshot of CRAN, which remains the same until the next release, thus allowing reproducibility and consistency.