Hi Michelle,
I am currently evaluating proTeXt for installation on the Australian
Defence network.
Wow!
1. There are two software versions for download at
http://ctan.unsw.edu.au/systems/windows/protext/ with the same timestamp
(28-Oct-2005 22:03): protext-1.3.exe and protext.exe. Does it matter
which version is downloaded?
No. The generic name is symlinked to the version name, that's all.
2. Is the software a network version or for single user only?
The licensing is more generous than either of those. The TeX software
that comprises the bulk of the distribution is released under a variety
of free software licenses. That is, it can be freely copied and used
(and modified) anywhere, and redistributed as desired.
The proTeXt distribution also includes two special cases: the WinEdt
editor, which is shareware (and clearly marked as such); if you want to
use it, you'd have to acquire licenses for that (http://tug.org/winedt).
And the gsview PDF viewer, which is under a slightly different license,
but can be copied around your network without problem. I imagine you
will probably be choosing to use the Adobe (Acrobat) Reader, anyway.
3. How frequent are the updates to the software?
Major updates to the protext distribution are relatively infrequent,
perhaps once or twice a year. And (in contrast to proprietary systems),
there is nothing forcing you to install each update. The system will
keep working fine as it is.
Minor updates, such as to individual LaTeX packages, are quite frequent
-- it is triggered by some contributor uploading a new version of some
package to CTAN (www.ctan.org), which then gets packaged. There is even
less reason to install each of these updates; most of them will be for
packages which you would never have occasion to use.
4. Is it up to the users to monitor updates on the software or can they
be notified by TUG?
protext is fundamentally a nicer installation routine for MiKTeX
(www.miktex.org). That is, what it installs is MiKTeX plus a few
additional programs (like winedt and gsview).
I explain this because MiKTeX has a very nice update mechanism, which is
what you would be using. I don't know all its details, but I know that
it can show you the packages available for update at any given time, and
a simple interface to select, download, and install them.
Of course TUG sends out announcements when there is a major new release;
there's a mailing list (www.tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-announce) you
can subscribe to to get those.
Hope this helps. Please let us know if any other questions or
concerns.
Thanks,
karl
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