Is S-PLUS dead? [closed]

Question

I know this is not precisely a programming question, but I don't where else to ask...

S-PLUS was aquired by TIBCO some years ago. And it was seemingly included to the Spotfire product. However I installed the demo version of Spotfire and can't find anything indicating that S-PLUS is anymore part of it.

So my question is: is S-PLUS dead? And is there any way to install a prior version of it? I know R has totally taken over, but I'd be curious to just try it out if it is available somewhere.

Answer 1

Not sure how relevant the question is but here are my $0.02:

• Yes, R has won.

• TIBCO still seems to have a Spotfire product mentioning S-Plus (pdf found via simple Google search).

• IIRC, years ago TIBCO purchased the commercial S license, but it turns out that nobody really wanted S-Plus if it was not entirely compatible with R.

• TIBCO learned that lesson and built an entirely new R-compatible engine they call TERR; the jury is still out as to whether it will ever get any significant traction.

In the end, it is rather difficult to beat a well-maintained and written Open Source product---and R is one of the better examples of Open Source done right.