Re: Choosing between Mathematica for Windows and Linux
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg36931] Re: Choosing between Mathematica for Windows and Linux
- From: "Dr. David Kirkby" <drkirkby at ntlworld.com>
- Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 03:32:37 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: University College London.
- References: <amh36l$9f8$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Sidney Cadot wrote: > > Hi group, > > One of these days the company I work for will buy one Mathematica 4.2 > license. Now we will have to choose between either the Linux or the Windows > versions of the product. > > Our Linux systems are Debian based, running 2.4.19 kernels, and the KDE-2 > window manager. Our Windows systems are running on top of VMWare in Windows > XP Professional. > In testing using an evaluation version I found that the VMWare/XP version is > performing pretty well so that wouldn't be an issue. > > My main concern (and probably the grounds on which we will base our > decision) is the quality of the front-end. The Windows frontend works > flawlessly; however, in test-driving earlier versions of Mathematica (3.0 > and 4.0) on Linux, I found that the front-end was working a lot less > satisfactorily. I didn't spend much time to hunt down the source of the > problem, but it is probable that some X key-mapping was wrong making, for > example, keyboard shortcuts for 'Copy' and 'Paste' malfunctioning. On the > whole, I'd say the Linux front-end simply felt less robust than does the > Windows frontend. > > Can anybody please tell me whether they got the Linux 4.2 Front-end working > to full satisfaction? I'd be willing to spend a couple of hours to fix some > settings, but only if I'm sure it could be done. The bottom line is that I I > would much prefer to run Mathematica on Linux instead of VMWare/Windows, but > not if that would mean putting up with a quircky front-end. For what it is worth, I have no problems with the front end under Solaris - another varient of Unix. -- Dr. David Kirkby PhD, email: drkirkby at ntlworld.com web page: http://www.david-kirkby.co.uk Amateur radio callsign: G8WRB