[This article was first published on R – Bio7, and kindly contributed to R-bloggers]. (You can report issue about the content on this page here)Want to share your content on R-bloggers? click here if you have a blog, or here if you don't.17.03.2026A new release of Bio7 is available.The application Bio7 is a free and open-source integrated development environment for ecological modeling, scientific image analysis and statistical analysis. Beside other programming tools it contains a feature complete development environment for R with an advanced R editor, R developer tools and interfaces to perform scientific image analysis with R and the embedded ImageJ application.Bio7 on MacOSX with the ‘Dark Theme’ enabled showing an example from the Spatstat package. Multiple plots are displayed in the ImageJ view as an image stack.New Features:Bio7 3.6 is based on Eclipse 4.39 (2026-03) targetBundled with Java OpenJDK 25 (Adoptium)Bio7 is now also available as a Linux aarch built (e.g., for Rasberry PI)Built System is now based on Tycho Maven and the application can be built from one repositoryBuilt can now be automized with a CI built systemBuilt is now based on a Eclipse target definitionJavaThe Java dynamic compiler now supports Java 25 compilationThe JDK is bundled JavaScript Nashorn 15.3ImageJImageJ plugin updated to version 1.54s13GeneralGroovy updated to version 5.01Updated Texclipse pluginAdded the Eclipse TM Terminal plugin for a full terminal supportAdded a new simple API to start the TM terminal programmatically with commandsAdded a new Rserve install scriptChanged R GIS import scripts using the terra libraryDark theme visuals improvedUpdated and added new all available Nebula SWT widgetsUpdated JOGL (Java OpenGL)Updated Java Libraries. Added new libraries (JOML library)Updated SSH Windows natives.Fixed several SWT Resource leaksAdded several default update sites for popular Eclipse plugins useful for Bio7 (PyDev, WindowBuilder, EGit).Removed JavaFX and the JavavFX SceneBuilder plugin from the PlatformDownload and Installation:WindowsJust download the *.zip distribution file from the Bio7 Github Releases and unzip it in your preferred location (avoid spaces in path!). Bio7 comes bundled with Java Adoptium and works out of the box. R and Rserve is not bundled (since Bio7 3.6) anymore by default!Download and install R and adjust the R path in the Bio7 preferences (optional also the default R packages path):Menu path: Preferences->Preferences Bio7->Preferences R(1) The path to R. (2) The Path where new R packages will be installed. Default paths on Windows are given and displayed which point to a local Bio7 installation.Install the Rserve package in R. For the Rserve installation you can also execute a Groovy script in the R-Shell-view after the R installation (start R in the Bio7 console).(1) Start R in the Bio7 console. (2) Execute the Groovy Rserve ‘download and install’ script for all supported platforms. (3) Finally start Rserve within R.LinuxDownload and extract the installation file from Bio7 Github Releases. Bio7 comes bundled with Java (Adoptium).Please note that you have to start Bio7 with Xorg (X display server) because of SWT_AWT which is used by ImageJ.For Linux you have to install R and a special compiled version of Rserve. The default OS path to R is used automatically if not set (like in Windows) in the preferences.Simply execute an available Groovy script in the R-Shell view (see Windows notes above).To install Rserve manually start the R console and paste the following command, see:https://github.com/Bio7/Rserve-Cooperative/blob/master/README.mdMacOSXDownload and extract the installation file from Bio7 Github Releases. Bio7 comes bundled with Java (Adoptium).For MacOSX you have to install R and a special compiled version of Rserve. The default OS path to R is used automatically if not set (like in Windows) in the preferences.Simply execute an available Groovy script in the R-Shell view (see Windows notes above).To install Rserve manually start the R console and paste the following command, see:https://github.com/Bio7/Rserve-Cooperative/blob/master/README.mdTo start Bio7 (unsigned) on MacOSXTo start Bio7 after installation please follow this advice (sign app locally):https://github.com/Bio7/bio7/discussions/30Bio7 DocumentationFor more information about Bio7 please consult the soon updated Bio7 User Guide.A plethora of Bio7 videotutorials for an introduction can be found on YouTube.AcknowledgementsSpecial thanks to Matthias Mailander for creating a Tycho Maven built for Bio7 which makes it possible to built Bio7 easily for different plattforms.To leave a comment for the author, please follow the link and comment on their blog: R – Bio7.R-bloggers.com offers daily e-mail updates about R news and tutorials about learning R and many other topics. Click here if you're looking to post or find an R/data-science job.Want to share your content on R-bloggers? click here if you have a blog, or here if you don't.Continue reading: Bio7 3.6 Released