[R] installing R on debian linux

[Corrin Lakeland]

On Sat, 02 Nov 2002 13:52, Chris Lawrence wrote:
> If you're running Woody, I'd use the packages on CRAN, since they're
> more up-to-date than the ones shipped in woody; with sarge or sid, use
> the packages in unstable.

I disagree.  If a user chooses to run woody/stable, it is because they 
want stable software that isn't changing frequently.  If they want 
something more up to date then they'd be running sarge.  If they want a 
stable system with a more up to date version of R, then I think they're 
better off using debian's pinning feature to use the R from testing or 
unstable rather than the one from CRAN.  Using pinning gives the 
benefit of having a close mirror, and guarantees dependancies can be 
satisfied.

Incidentially, and along the same track, the version in sarge is 
currently the same as the one in unstable, and when they differ (e.g. 
tomorrow with Dirk's 1.6.1), people who have chosen sarge over unstable 
will probably prefer to wait two weeks until the people running 
unstable (like me) have stumbled over and fixed any obvious bugs.

Summary: Not everyone wants the latest version, some people would rather 
have the fewer bugs.

All IMHO, it could well be that Michael is only running stable by 
coincidence and would be happier with R-1.6.1.

Corrin
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