" Microsoft Azure supports a broad set of operating systems, languages, and frameworks—including Node.js, MongoDB, Linux, Java, PHP, Python, Ruby, Hadoop, and, of course, Windows, SQL Server and .NET "

Apparently SAS folks had to reply & 'counter test' using the SAS IN MEMORY (IMSTAT) version of the SAS program.

--> https://support.sas.com/resources/papers/Benchmark-LASR-IMSTAT.pdf

The tables are now turned in favor of SAS. Again, both papers/benchmarks are created by the respective firms. I am a SAS programmer, and I'm sure the continued use of SAS by all these big juicy firms is not because its the worst product :).

Cheers!

PS : Revolution Analytics was acquired by Microsoft in April 2015, so the fastest implementation of R is now owned by Microsoft. They intend to integrate it with their Azure Machine Learning ( A ML) and other cloud based tools

Thank you! That was a very thoughtful and helpful review. I guess I was attracted to Python slightly more due to my realization that it had all the scientific model building stuff inbuilt, but maybe I should reconsider these benefits given the fact that Ruby might be equally capable of doing the same. And also prove helpful in the immediate term with part time jobs/projects etc.

Thank you again!

I'm curious to know how you'd rate Ruby in terms of Statistical Modeling capabilities - I work a lot with SAS (the old big Dino-sized Statistical software) and I am attracted by Python's ability to perform many similar functions as the R software using Python packages.

Do you know if Ruby has similar capabilities....in terms of statistical analysis/modeling abilities? Thank you for your thoughts!

A very interesting read! I am trying to brush up my bare-bones C++ (6 years ago :( ) and looking to get into Ruby/Python...so these articles tickle my coding impulses

Thanks!