As we've continued to market and get the word out about Inference for R, we've received quite a few questions and comments from potential users. One of the most common questions I get basically amounts to: "Dude, where's the non-Windows version?" After all, R works on all platforms, why doesn't Inference? To get to the bottom of this, I thought I'd break it all down into Q & A format. Trust me, everything is better in Q & A format.

Question: Let's start at the beginning here. Is there a version of Inference that runs on OS X, Linux, Unix, or any other operating system that didn't come out of Redmond, Washington?

Answer: The short answer is no, not yet.

Question: Seriously, what gives?

Answer: Ok, here's the deal. Inference is built in C# using Microsoft Visual Studio. Inference Studio uses a host of third party .NET components for the ribbon UI, syntax highlighting, charting, etc. Inference in Excel/Word/PowerPoint are all built as VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office) add-ins for Microsoft Office. In short, it's a completely .NET-centric application suite. And the kicker, of course, is that .NET only runs on Windows.

Question: Really, .NET only runs on Windows -- perhaps you haven't heard of a little open-source project called MONO that allows you to run .NET applications on all platforms?

Answer: Ah yes, Mono! We're really excited about the possibilities that Mono (http://mono-project.com/Main_Page) presents…specifically, running Inference for R on OS X, Linux, and Unix! I personally find it incredibly impressive what you can do with Mono right now. However, Mono isn't quite far enough along to support all of the .NET third-party components used by Inference Studio. That said, I'm convinced that Mono will get there, and when it does, we'll have a version of Inference Studio that runs on platforms other than Windows.

Question: That's great! When can I get it then?

Answer: Well, that's the difficult part. It's hard to tell when all the necessary pieces will come together. We're currently assembling a list of users who would be interested in Inference on non-Windows platforms, and we're keeping these users appraised of our progress. If you'd like to be included on the list, please drop me a line at development@bluereference.com.

Question: Let's talk about the Microsoft Office part of this. You know that OpenOffice runs on Windows, right? Where's the OpenOffice version?

Answer: We know that there are quite a few Windows OpenOffice users, and we're looking to add OpenOffice support to Inference. As one of the first steps towards that end, in the next release, we plan to support OpenOffice datasets in Inference. This means that you can define your datasets as OpenOffice spreadsheets (just as you currently can in Excel) and then access that data directly from your R code.

Question: That sounds great, but why not take it a step further and provide the same ability to run R code in OpenOffice as you have in Excel and Word?

Answer: The reason we're able to get such extensive integration with Excel and Word is that Microsoft Office provides a very extensive object model that allows us to build tightly integrated add-ins. OpenOffice also has an add-in object model, but it would require a completely different set of add-ins, which would be challenging to write in .NET while leveraging the existing code base.  We're still working on this as a future option.

Question: So why did you pick Microsoft Office over OpenOffice?

Answer: We had to start somewhere, and we decided to start with the platform that had more users.  Plus Bill Gates offered to "take care of me" in his will...kidding.

Question: So…what's the bottom line for OpenOffice then?

Answer: The bottom line is that we'll continue to add OpenOffice support as we can. It will start with the OpenOffice datasets in the next release, and continue from there.

Question: While we're on the topic of Microsoft Office, you know they have Office on the Mac, right?

Answer: Well, yes, they do. However, it's a completely different version of Microsoft Office than its Windows counterpart. Office Mac doesn't have the same add-in model that the Windows version does, so it's unclear how to even build an Inference implementation. As an aside, the latest version of Office Mac doesn't even support Excel macros, so you can kind of see where we're going with this…

Question: All right, let's wrap this up. Any final thoughts?

Answer: Well yes, I'm glad you asked. As a fellow Mac user, I'm looking forward to using Inference on my Mac…hopefully some day in the not-too-distant-future.

Question: Really? Prove it.

Answer: Fine…