[TrevorBurnham]

Have you seen this? http://yeroon.net/

It's a bunch of web-based graphical wrappers around R created by a UCLA stats prof, Jeroen Ooms. Slick stuff, for a hobby project.

I agree with jdietrich: In order to be more than a hobby project, you need a "quantum leap in usability." But I'm optimistic. I think someone will definitely figure out how to do this in the next 5 years.

Justin also has a good point that a tool aimed specifically at students would be great. Most intro stats courses are taught using SPSS or Stata, and most of the kids in the course have never done programming before; as if stats weren't a perplexing enough subject in itself!