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Free statistical software is a practical alternative to commercial packages. Many of the free to use programs aim to be similar in function to commercial packages, in that they are general statistical packages that perform a variety of statistical analyses. Many other free to use programs were designed specifically for particular functions, like factor analysis, power analysis in sample size calculations, classification and regression trees, or analysis of missing data.
Many of the free to use packages are fairly easy to learn, using menu systems. Many others are command-driven. Still others are meta-packages or statistical computing environments, which allow the user to code completely new statistical procedures. These packages come from a variety of sources, including governments, universities, and private individuals.
This article is primarily a review of the general statistical packages.