On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 11:16 AM, Dr. David Kirkby <[email protected]> wrote: > > mabshoff wrote: >> >> >> On Feb 12, 6:12 am, "Dr. David Kirkby" <[email protected]> >> wrote: >>> mabshoff wrote: >> >> <SNIP> >> >>> Michael, >> >> Hi David, > > Hi Michael. > >>> Where does the Mathematica Home Edition license say you can't do >>> research with it? I've herd this rumor, but nobody has managed to >>> substantiate this by showing the license conditions. >> >> You are correct, as you write below, that my intention to write was >> about the restrictions of using it in non-academic settings. One can >> do research with that version. > > This thing about not being able to use the Home Edition of Mathematica > for research seems to have propogated around the web like wild fire. The > same point is made on comp.math.symbolic, an Apple users web site, Sage > ... etc. > > As you say, it can't be used in academic environments, although students > can use it, but a student version is cheaper. > > I feel WRI shot themselves in the foot at University College London, > where the Mathematica usage was dramatically falling due to the price.
> > We had a site license, but the cost had to be recovered from departments > or individuals using Mathematica. As the WRI increased the license cost > each year, so the cost per user went up. As the cost per user went up, > so the number of users fell, so the cost per user went up even more.... > etc etc. > > I recall at one point our department had a license for the whole > department (150 or so staff). 10 years later and my boss suggested I > should consider using something else, like MATLAB, as I was the only > person in the department using Mathematica. The cost had just escalated > to silly levels. Here's an interview with Wolfram from 1993 that touches on this point: ------------------------ ... Wolfram: There's another thing, quite honestly, that that community has a hard time with. They sort of hate one aspect of what I have done, which is to take intellectual developments and make a company out of them and sell things to people. DDJ: Probably not surprising, if mathematicians are the most puristic of scientists. Wolfram: My own view of that, which has hardened over the years, is, my god, that's the right thing to do. If you look at what's happened with TeX, for example, which went in the other direction...well, Mathematica could not have been brought to where it is today if it had not been done as a commercial effort. The amount of money that has to be spent to do all the details of development, you just can't support that in any other way than this unique American idea of the entrepreneurial company. -- Stephen Wolfram, 1993, Doctor Dobbs Journal Interview ------------------------------------ > >>> I must say, I agree limiting it to only 32-bits is a bit silly. In this >>> day and age, with most computers having 64-bit processors, and >>> Mathematica quite hungry for RAM, WRI have put a silly limitation on the >>> home edition. >> >> Well, Magma's student version is much worst: Last time I checked it >> limited that version to allocating a maximum of 100 MB. > > > 100 MB is just plain silly. I think limiting MMA to 32-bit is silly now, > but 100 MB is a joke. Yep. Here's the order form for the student version: http://magma.maths.usyd.edu.au/magma/Ordering/order_student.shtml The evidently increased the limit from 100MB to 150MB :-) It has *other* limitations too: # The student version contains all user-level functions that are present in the full version. However, in a few cases some high-performance versions of algorithms may be omitted. # The student version is restricted to a workspace of 150 MB. # Some advanced databases are not available with the student version. There is a recent Ph.D. thesis about Groebner basis where the author only could afford the student version of Magma, and this directly impacted his research. > >> >> Since you are a Sun fan you might want to check out >> >> http://blogs.sun.com/jaggerisgod/entry/serug_sage_math_open_source >> >> It is William's talk about Sage via Sun's education network. > > > Nice paper. > > If William is ever in London and Sage is running well on Solaris x86, > I'm sure he would get a nice welcome at the London OpenSolaris User > Group (LOSUG). I'm going to be in Europe for nearly 2 months *this* summer -- most of June and July, except as scheduled here: http://wiki.wstein.org/schedule I think I still have room in my schedule... Who knows, maybe I'll end up going to London. I have number theory research friends there too. > > http://opensolaris.org/os/project/losug/ > > There are often talks about new or interesting software on Solaris. I'm > sure Sun would welcome it, as they are sponsoring the port. > > > The LOSUG meetings are quite popular - probably helped by the fact there > is free food, beer and wine! But seriously, a talk on Sage I am sure > would be popular. The lady that organises the meetings (Joy) does a > pretty good job of it. > > Perhaps with the economic climate like it is, more companies will look > to free software for their needs. Perhaps there is light at the end of > the tunnel after all. I get the impression that this is actually highly likely after having gone to the discussions in our department about what we need to cut to make ends meet now that our budget is being slashed. It's nice to know that working on Sage might help a lot of people in the world a little tiny amount in dealing with the pain of the financial crisis. William --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
