Free statistical software is a practical alternative to commercial packages. In general, free statistical software gives results that are the same as the results from commercial programs, and many of the packages are fairly easy to learn, using menu systems, although a few are command-driven. These packages come from a variety of sources, including governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) like UNESCO, and universities, and are also developed by individuals.
Some packages are developed for specific purposes (e.g., time series analysis, factor analysis, calculators for probability distributions, etc.), while others are general packages, with a variety of statistical procedures. Others are meta-packages or statistical computing environments, which allow the user to code completely new statistical procedures. This article is a review of the general statistical packages.
Read more about Free Statistical Software: Brief History of Free Statistical Software, Reviews of Free Statistical Software, Using Free Statistical Software, Limitations of Packages
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—Johnnie Tillmon (b. 1926)