Koding: R analytics environment

This is a pretty random post, but I found a nice website that was worth sharing. There are several online websites and courses that will teach you a programming language of your choice. Most have the same requirements, have a laptop and install the open source software / language on your laptop. What happens if you have an aging laptop? Or a chromebook? Or maybe just an iPad? The answer is Koding.com.

Koding allows you to setup a free Ubuntu server. Their goals are to enable users with the ability to learn programming. In addition, this gives the user the ability to learn Linux as well. You can install your utilities, understand commands and even setup basic workflows. The server has modest specifications, but with just a few commands you can install and run R.

Here's a quick few lines on getting started:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Add this line at the end of the file:
deb https://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu trusty/

Then hit control+x to exit. 

Hit Y to save the file. 

Hit Enter to overwrite the file.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install r-base

Enter Y to continue.
Enter Y to install the base packages.

Now you’re ready to go. Type in the command “R” to get started.