The contents of this tutorial is geared toward downloading and installing the RStudio Desktop IDE on:

Windows
macOS
Linux
- Ubuntu / Debian
- RedHat / openSUSE / Fedora

Click one of the above links to be taken to the appropriate installation section.

What is RStudio Desktop IDE?

Before downloading or installing any software, it may help to have a bit of a background as to what you are obtaining. Thus, let’s briefly look at “What is RStudio Desktop IDE?”

RStudio Desktop IDE is:

an advanced Integrated Developer Environment (IDE) on your desktop for R
designed to allow for exploratory data sessions or indepth project workflows
provides scalable support for novice and advanced users
open source (e.g. free) project that is cross platform (Windows, macOS, and Linux)

Psst, there is also a server version that has Pro features which mimick Google Docs!

Downloading and Installation of RStudio Desktop IDE

RStudio provides a symbolically linked URL to the latest stable version available. The details of which are found in one of their support knowledge bank entries. The gist of the linking system goes along the lines of:

http://rstudio.org/download/latest/<build-type>/<product-type>/<os-type>/<rstudio-cap>-latest<file-type>

where

<build-type> is either: stable, preview, or daily
<product-type> is either: desktop or server
<rstudio-cap> is either: RStudio (windows, mac) or rstudio (linux)
<os-type> is either: windows, mac, ubuntu64, ubuntu32, redhat64/fedora64, or redhat32/fedora32
<file-type> is either: .exe, .dmg, -amd64.deb,-i386.deb, -x86_64.rpm, or -i686.rpm

Note: redhat is used when referencing the desktop client and fedora when using the server client.

These URLs are referenced below. In general, you can obtain the desired stable RStudio Desktop IDE installer by visiting https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/#download.

Windows

http://rstudio.org/download/latest/stable/desktop/windows/RStudio-latest.exe

Insert screenshots when R 3.4.1 is released on June 20th

macOS

http://rstudio.org/download/latest/stable/desktop/mac/RStudio-latest.dmg

Insert screenshots when R 3.4.1 is released on June 20th

Linux

Ubuntu / Debian

# Prerequisite software package
sudo apt-get install gdebi-core

# Download latest 64 bit version
wget -O rstudio-latest-amd64.deb https://www.rstudio.org/download/latest/stable/desktop/ubuntu64/rstudio-latest-amd64.deb

# Install it
sudo gdebi rstudio-latest-amd64.deb

# Remove the installer
rm rstudio-latest-amd64.deb

RedHat / Fedora / openSUSE

# Download latest 64 bit version
wget -O rstudio-latest-x86_64.rpm https://www.rstudio.org/download/latest/stable/desktop/redhat64/rstudio-latest-x86_64.rpm

# Install it
sudo yum install --nogpgcheck rstudio-latest-x86_64.rpm

# Remove the installer
rm rstudio-latest-x86_64.rpm

Downloading and Installing RStudio Desktop