Okay, I admit there are lots of threads R vs. something. The strengths of R are obvious to most people here. Still though advertising R in an environment that has been preferring various kinds of other software for quite some time is not easy.

Moreover, even in the limited time I´ve been dealing with R, it improved so dramatically that I would mention things among its strengths that I would not have listed when I started my personal R-evolution.

So, what I am trying to do here is to collect the most recent and striking arguments that can be put in nutshell and be presented easily.

What I got on my list so far is:

• the Springer useR series
• ggplot2 and its documentation
• open source
• CRAN
• Rapache
• rcpp
• rsocket

What can you add to this list? SO threads are also very welcome as answers.

EDIT: so far, though indeed very helpful, most answers are arguments (pros) why one would want to use R. Do you have some specific hints that I could include in some kind of overview presentation?

EDIT2: I wanted to add this link about R's future to the list...