Below is a ranked list of the key VS Code Dev Container repositories and templates for R—both those you mentioned and a couple of noteworthy extras—ordered by overall completeness, maintenance/activity, and feature set.
In summary, revodavid/devcontainers-rstudio tops the list as a fully featured, workshop-ready container (including RStudio Server, Quarto, and teaching materials) with the highest star count and active maintenance GitHubGitHub. Next is grantmcdermott/codespaces-r2u, which leverages the Rocker Dev Container Features and the r2u tool for fast, reproducible package installs in GitHub Codespaces GitHubdirk.eddelbuettel.com. Third is the rocker-org/devcontainer-templates collection, offering a broad suite of pre-built R Dev Container starters (r-ver, r-devel, etc.) that you can apply via the Dev Containers UI or CLI GitHubrocker-project.org. Fourth is rocker-org/devcontainer-try-r, a lightweight set of minimal examples for quick experimentation GitHubGitHub. Finally, revodavid/devcontainers-r provides an easy tutorial-style container but is more narrowly focused on teaching demos rather than a full dev environment GitHub.
Rank: 1 – Most full-featured & actively maintained
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Stars & activity: 133 stars, frequent community contributions and issue discussions GitHub.
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Feature set: Zero-setup R workshops with GitHub Codespaces: includes R, RStudio Server, Quarto CLI, common packages, and lesson materials GitHub.
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Use case: Ideal for teaching or collaborative workshops where participants need both VS Code and RStudio interfaces out of the box.
Rank: 2 – Batteries-included Codespaces example with fast package management
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Stars & activity: 17 stars, maintained examples and CI workflows GitHub.
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Feature set: Builds on the Rocker Dev Container Features, plus r2u (“R to you”) for safe, fail-safe CRAN installs in seconds GitHubdirk.eddelbuettel.com.
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Use case: Best for cloud-first R development in GitHub Codespaces where quick package iteration is key.
Rank: 3 – Comprehensive library of R Dev Container starters
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Stars & breadth: 26 stars; houses multiple templates (e.g.
r-ver,r-devel,r2u) for different R versions and workflows GitHubrocker-project.org. -
Feature set: Pure templates—no single “one-container” repo. Apply via the VS Code Dev Containers UI or
devcontainer templates applyCLI. -
Use case: When you need to spin up a custom R environment (specific R version, system libs) without writing a Dockerfile from scratch.
Rank: 4 – Minimal example definitions for quick tests
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Stars & activity: 17 stars, minimal community involvement GitHub.
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Feature set: A handful of
.devcontainerdefinitions demonstrating basic R setups; great for learning Dev Container syntax GitHub. -
Use case: Prototyping or learning how Dev Containers work, not intended as a production-ready environment.
Rank: 5 – Tutorial-focused R container
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Stars & scope: Supports “Easy R Tutorials” (UseR!2022) with step-by-step demos but lacks full RStudio integration GitHub.
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Feature set: Dockerfile +
.devcontainer.jsonfor basic R tutorials; ideal for educational blog posts or self-study. -
Use case: When following a specific tutorial; less suited for general R development.
Recommendation:
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For a turnkey, full-featured R environment (with both VS Code and RStudio): use revodavid/devcontainers-rstudio.
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For fast cloud-native R in Codespaces with advanced package caching: choose codespaces-r2u.
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If you need fine-grained control over R versions or want to mix and match templates, explore rocker-org/devcontainer-templates.