In what metric? The GUI of SPSS is better then R (which doesn't have a GUI, though interesting competitors are available like Rcmdr and Deducer). In terms of everything else (performance, graphics, statistical tools, programming language), then from what I understand - R is the winner without a doubt...

I learned R some time ago in university. I've heard of lots of newly graduated colleagues that now work doing "SPSS consulting" (whatever that means) for big businesses. But I can't really see how you could use R to parse financial data, becaule I lack the financial background to understand what it means. Maybe that's what SPSS provides, and what singingfish means with "you don't need to know what you're doing".

Actually, I read his comment as meaning that SPSS was more useful for the sort of "cookbook stat" usually taught in business schools.

SPSS comes from the school of "you don't need to know what you're doing in order to analyse data". R requires that you understand what it is what you want to do in order to make it work.

I quite like the middle ground of JMP (kind of SAS lite), and its a damned sight cheaper than SPSS too.