I came across this blog post just now: The Next Big Thing, and of course these words caught my attention:
[…] However, for me personally and for most users, both individual and organizational, the much greater cost of software is the time it takes to install it, maintain it, learn it and document it. On that, R is an epic fail.
I don’t really understand how (much more?) difficult will it be to install and maintain R. Usually it takes about one minute to install it from the binary (and SAS? SPSS? buy it, find a technician, install it, maintain according to different licenses - single PC or server or other types, continue to pay only tens of thousand dollars next year, …). For learning, it depends. I don’t think it is too difficult for people who know well about statistics, and for the rest of people, do they really feel safe to do something they do not understand? For the documentation, some people prefer simple ones and some prefer handbooks (of SAS-style).
In all, I cannot see why R is an epic fail for the above reasons…
What? Data visualization? …
The R community must have been tired of comparing SAS with R. Please don’t tell Prof Frank Harrell about this post…
Donate
As a freelancer (currently working as a contractor) and a dad of three kids, I truly appreciate your donation to support my writing and open-source software development! Your contribution helps me cope with financial uncertainty better, so I can spend more time on producing high-quality content and software. You can make a donation through methods below.
-
Venmo:
@yihui_xie, or Zelle:[email protected] -
Paypal
-
If you have a Paypal account, you can follow the link https://paypal.me/YihuiXie or find me on Paypal via my email
[email protected]. Please choose the payment type as “Family and Friends” (instead of “Goods and Services”) to avoid extra fees. -
If you don’t have Paypal, you may donate through this link via your debit or credit card. Paypal will charge a fee on my side.
-
-
Other ways:
WeChat Pay (微信支付：谢益辉) Alipay (支付宝：谢益辉) 
When sending money, please be sure to add a note “gift” or “donation” if possible, so it won’t be treated as my taxable income but a genuine gift. Needless to say, donation is completely voluntary and I appreciate any amount you can give.
Please feel free to email me if you prefer a different way to give. Thank you very much!
I’ll give back a significant portion of the donations to the open-source community and charities. For the record, I received about $30,000 in total (before tax) in 2024-25, and gave back about $15,000 (after tax).