We have implemented R in what we hope is a very portable fashion and in way which requires relatively little in the way of machine resources. Versions of the language exist for many Unix platforms including FreeBSD, NetBSD and Linux. In addition we have ported R to the Macintosh and Power Macintosh computers. A version for Microsoft Windows is under development.
R was written by Robert Gentleman and Ross Ihaka of the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland. It owes much, however, to the pioneering work of Rick Becker, John Chambers, Allan Wilks, and their colleagues at AT&T Bell Laboratories on the S language. The two languages are implemented quite differently, but bear enough superficial resemblence that users should be able to switch between the two with relative ease.
This software is made available as free software under the terms of the Free Software Foundation's GNU General Public License. This license grants permission to copy and redistribute the software under certain conditions. In essence these conditions require that you place no additional restrictions on further distribution of the software and that you make the source code available to anyone who you give a binary copy to. Consult the license for the exact details.
R is free software; it comes with no warranty.