R is free, as in freedom and as in free beer

In many ways, a language is successful inasmuch as it creates a platform with which many people can create new things, and R has proven to be very successful in this regard. One key limitation of the S language was that it was only available in a commercial package, but R is free software. Free as in freedom, and free as in free beer.

The copyright for the primary source code for R is held by the R Foundation and is published under General Public License (GPL). According to the Free Software Foundation (http://www.fsf.org/), with free software (free as in freedom) you are granted the following four freedoms:

• Freedom 0: Run the program for any purpose
• Freedom 1: Study how the program works and adapt it to your needs
• Freedom 2: Redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor
• Freedom 3: Improve the program and release your improvements to the public

These freedoms have allowed R to develop strong prolific communities that include world-class statisticians and programmers as well as many volunteers, who help improve and extend the language. They also allow for R to be developed and maintained for all popular operating systems, and to be easily used by inpiduals and organizations who wish to do so, possibly sharing their findings in a way that others can replicate their results. Such is the power of free software.