2021-10-29 19:42:29 UTC, Thierry:
>
> Hi,
>
> i have to tell various people how to install Sage on their OS
> and i am a bit confused about MacOS and Windows installers.
>
> Regarding MacOS, the installation guide [1] speaks about
> alternative binaries than the ones that are available on the
> mirrors, explaining that those "have been signed and notarized,
> eliminating various errors caused by Appleā€™s gatekeeper
> antimalware protections".
>
> My first question is: if such binaries are better, why don't we
> distribute similar binaries on the mirrors? Which binaries
> should be recommended?

The macOS section at [1] is slightly outdated, since our official
download page for macOS (visit [3] then select a mirror then
click 'intel') now only offers .tar.bz2 files, and no longer offers
any .dmg or -app.dmg. That macOS download page now has
a prominent link to the download page for the macOS app [4],
which is nice.

As to whether to recommend the .tar.bz2 binary or the app:

- the app provides a comfortable user experience
  for most macOS users; it has some limitations
  in terms of installing extra packages
- not sure what problems the .tar.bz2 may have
- there is also the Conda way via sagemath-forge, see [5], [6]

> Regarding Windows, the mirrors propose a 9.2 version
> of Sage (0.6.2 installer), but the last release available
> on [2] is Sage 9.3 (0.6.3 installer).
>
> My second question is: is the 9.3 ready for use and
> recommended, and if yes, why isn't it available through
> the mirrors?

A similar question was asked very recently on Ask Sage:

- Ask Sage question 59499
  Download mirrors and the Sage-Windows installer
  https://ask.sagemath.org/question/59499

The "SageMath 9.3 (0.6.3 installer)" is recommended.
Hopefully Harald can push it to the download mirrors.
It was probably an oversight not to ask him to do it
at the time that installer was released. Done now.

So currently the situation is:

- (a) macOS: our download pages have .tar.bz2 binaries
  and point to GitHub for the app download
- (b) Windows: the Sage-Windows installer is available
  at GitHub and also on our download pages
  (visit [7] then select a mirror)

Good sides of solution (a):

- no mismatch can arise between the available
  app version that can be downloaded from GitHub
  vs from our download pages, since the app is
  only on GitHub
- no extra hassle for the developer of the app
  to get each new version uploaded to our mirrors

Good sides of solution (b):

- better for users in countries blocked by GitHub

We could aim to mirror the macOS app and
to improve the installation guide in various ways.
I'll see if I can help with the mirroring and the
download guide improvement.

> [1] https://doc.sagemath.org/html/en/installation/binary.html#macos
> [2] https://github.com/sagemath/sage-windows/releases

[3] https://www.sagemath.org/download-mac.html
[4] https://github.com/3-manifolds/Sage_macOS/releases
[5] https://groups.google.com/g/sage-devel/c/QeYle_D8Otc
[6] https://groups.google.com/g/sage-devel/c/NfUKjAaTcUg/m/OmRYlvHWAwAJ
[7] https://www.sagemath.org/download-windows.html

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