> wolfram's mathematica page says:
> *Mathematica* has been ported to the OLPC "$100 laptop"
> http://www.wolfram.com/products/mathematica/analysis/content/MathEducationSoftware.html
>
> I can't see it on the activities page - does anyone have information about
> this?
Mathematica is available for Linux so I'd assume that you could load and
run it on an XO in a windowing environment.
From the Mathematica site>>>
Linux x86
Linux 2.4 or later 32-bit, 64-bit
Mathematica 6 has been fully tested on all major Linux distributions
based on the 2.4 Linux kernel. On newer Linux distributions, additional
compatibility libraries may need to be installed.
What are the minimal hardware requirements of Mathematica?
Mathematica adapts very well to a variety of environments and is capable
of taking advantage of whatever resources are made available to it. The
minimum requirements are very small and so Mathematica should be able to
run on any of the supported platforms.
Mathematica requires very little memory to start up, but once you start
performing large calculations, the memory requirements can grow quickly.
The exact memory requirements cannot be provided since it depends on the
problem being tackled. Simple calculations require very little memory,
but large calculations such as large matrix operations and graphics may
require more. Keep the problem to be solved in mind when choosing a
computer on which to install Mathematica.
The following table represents a good place to start for beginning
calculations in Mathematica and should allow small- to medium-sized
calculations to be carried out without any problems.
Download Size 500 MB*
Minimum Memory Requirement 256 MB
Recommended Memory 512 MB or greater
Hard Drive 3.0 GB*
Please note that the required hard drive space reduces to 1.5* GB if you
delete the downloaded installer and the copy that the installer creates
of itself in /Wolfram Research/Downloads after you have successfully
installed Mathematica to your machine.
Most computers purchased today easily meet these requirements so minimum
system requirements should not be a concern in most cases.
* Size requirements vary from one file system to another.
<<<
It is commercial software though, and so you're not likely to ever find
it on the Activities page.
What are the minimal hardware requirements of Mathematica?
Great software, but I'd say it plays to an audience older than OLPC's
target. Also, at Wolfram's price of $140 for a student license, it's
likely to be way out of the price league for the typical OLPC target.
The original version ran on 16MHz 68020 Macs with a math coprocessor. It
would be interesting to explore if Wolfram would be willing to allow a
free or low-price version based on an earlier version of the software.
Bob
_______________________________________________
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
