R and SPSS difference

Question

I will be analysing vast amount of network traffic related data shortly, and will pre-process the data in order to analyse it. I have found that R and SPSS are among the most po

Answer 1

I have not data for it, but from my experience I can tell you one thing:

SPSS is a lot slower than R. (And with a lot, I really mean a lot)

The magnitude of the difference is probably as big as the one between C++ and R.

For example, I never have to wait longer than a couple of seconds in R. Using SPSS and similar data, I had calculations that took longer than 10 minutes.

As an unrelated side note: In my eyes, in the recent discussion on the speed of R, this point was somehow overlooked (i.e., the comparison with SPSS). Furthermore, I am astonished how this discussion popped up for a while and silently disappeared again.