I'm trying to decide how and where to install Sage. I'm hoping you can all give me some guidance (and that this thread will be useful to other folks in a similar position).
In the past, I have used Sage in three ways: 1) Via the notebook server at sagenb.org 2) Via an account on one of the research machines at the University of Washington 3) By recruiting an undergraduate student who had installed Linux on a personal laptop, and talking them into installing Sage and writing code for me. This worked well at my previous institution, where all freshmen have to learn some Python, but is probably not an ideal long- term solution. I'm now an assistant professor at a medium-sized, undergraduate- focused university. I have recruited two undergrads to do research with me. I'd like us all to have access to Sage, including the most recent version of the toric geometry packages. My department runs Windows machines; my personal computer also runs Windows. I may be able to persuade a system administrator in computer science to install Sage for me on one of the computer science Linux machines. The math department relies on the university's IT division; we don't have our own sysadmin support. Here are some ways I can think of to use Sage: 0) Use sagenb.org on an occasional basis. 1) Find a collaborator with a Sage installation, and talk them into making accounts for me and my students. 2) Install Sage on my office & personal computer, and make my students do the same (or put Sage on one of the Windows machines that all math students have access to). 3) Put Sage on the computer science machine, and obtain user logins for myself and my two students. (Would I be able to use packages that aren't part of the core release without root access?) How much work is it to maintain a Sage installation, and what sort of imposition would this be on computer science? 4) Set up a Sage notebook server in computer science, and let my students use the machine only via notebooks. I'm not sure whether this is slightly more work or slightly less work than (3). 5) Scrounge a PC for my house, figure out how to install Linux on it, and run Sage. Make my students install Sage themselves. 6) Scrounge a PC for the math department and install Linux on it. Persuade the university's IT division to maintain it, or to let me maintain it. 7) Scrounge a Mac for the math department, and put Sage on it. Probably easier than (6). Could I make the Mac into a notebook server for my students and me? 8) Write a big grant for a research machine for my department and funds to maintain it. (Hard!) Please advise! --Ursula. -- To post to this group, send email to sage-support@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sage-support+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-support URL: http://www.sagemath.org
