It is the most up to date software; it will make you more attractive on the job market; and enable you to do any analysis from one program. The two (linked) articles explain why, and give a great list of resources for how to learn, including Coursera :
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Why You Should Become a UseR: A Brief Introduction to R
If you are reading this article, you’ve likely heard of the programming language R but may be avoiding it. R is a programming language for statistical computing and graphics that you can use to clean, analyze, and graph your data.
Learning to Work With R
Below are some great tutorials that are freely available online and are great introductory tools for getting you started on your journey to R mastery. The R Website (free) This is the website where you download R. Many of the packages you will want to use are available here. YaRrr!
