I need to install the new version of R to get around the 2^31 object size limit. Its not clear how to do so. I see that there is a user-contributed PPA here. But I'm not sure exactly how to install it -- I would add the PPA, then do sudo apt-get install R-base? Do I need to manually remove the old version? How do I make sure that the new version of R plays well with Rgedit, which I use as an editor? I see many packages built for the PPA, but I don't see ALL of them, and in particular it is missing many that I use.

Can I upgrade without creating problems along the lines of the worries described above? How do I do it?