Introduction

In Jan 2015, Microsoft acquired Revolution Analytics, a company focused on big data and advanced statistical analysis using R language. Since then, Microsoft has quietly been beefing up its big data services and offerings. Revolution Analytics had a product named Revolution R Open, enhanced distribution of R language. The Revolution R Open was a completely open-source platform for statistical analysis and data science. If you’re not familiar with R language, read What R Language Is.
Microsoft R Open (MRO) is the new name of Revolution R Open. It is the enhanced distribution of R from Microsoft.
Download and Version
MRO 3.2.3 is the latest release of Microsoft R Open. This release is supported on 64-bit platforms only. The current release, MRO 3.2.3, is based on the statistical language R-3.2.3 and includes additional capabilities for improved performance, reproducibility, and platform support.
What Operating Systems are supported
  • Windows 7.0 (SP1), 8.0, 8.1, 10, Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1) and 2012
  • Linux Ubuntu 12.04, 14.04, 15.04
  • CentOS / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8, 6.5, 7.1
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 & 11 & OpenSUSE 13.1
  • Mac OS X Mavericks (10.9), Yosemite (10.10), El Capitan (10.11)
Who should learn R
R is a language for data analysts. R is easy to learn, and a very natural and expressive one for data analysis.
The functionality of R lives in packages. A package is a collection of R functions, data, and compiled code. R is extensible. Developers can easily extend R by adding their own packages and functions.
Learn more about What R Is.