Re: Does anyone else think Wolfram Research are unfair to Unixusers?

On Jul 9, 2:26 pm, Dave <f...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
none wrote:
I guess the Unix versions of Mathematica are selling less than the
Linux/Windows/Mac ones, which is why WRI don't put as much effort into
the Unix ones. I think this is most evident in the fact that Solaris x86
is supported only on AMD CPUs, not Intel.

I'm curious: why does it matter if Solaris is running under AMD rather
than Intel? In the Windows world it has no effect on the programs I buy..
Plus - I thought Solaris had a compatability mode to run Linux binaries?

In short, Mathematica only runs on AMD CPUs under Solaris x86. See:

http://www.wolfram.com/products/mathematica/platforms/

Sun x86
         Solaris 10      64-bit
         Requires AMD 64-bit machine.

The AMD chips support the AMD_3DNOW instructions, which are not in the
Intel CPUs. Hence Intel CPUs can't run Mathematica on Solaris x86
without a hack which involves replacing various libraries supplied by
Wolfram Research with those supplied by Sun as part of the Sun Studio 12
Development System.

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.math.symbolic/browse_thread/thread...

I know of no program other than Mathematica which is affected in this
way on Solaris x86.

I'm not sure that Sage being ported to native Windows will make a
difference - Maxima & Axiom have long been available, not to mention
Maple/MathCAD.

Perhaps. Sage seems to be attracting a lot of developers, with Google,
Microsoft and several other big names putting money that way.

On Jul 9, 2:26 pm, Dave <f...@xxxxxxx> writes:

D> Sage seems to be attracting a lot of developers, with
D> Google, Microsoft and several other big names putting
D> money that way.

We did not have the chance and resource to test SAGE yet.

Still, based on its components (Maxima etc), and our internal
calculations about Maxima, we now do not feel that spending
some dozens human-years could have shorten tangibly the
conspicuous gap between the commercial CAS systems like
Mathematica and the current open source CAS projects.

I realize that the SAGE folks keep developing also their own
(hopefully, efficient) code. Still, at the same span of time,
say, Wolfram Research pushes their Mathematica even further.

So, maybe, in time, the gap will only grow.

Of course, one can say that, in some years, WRI could go
out of the stage (God forbid!) while the open source CASs
will be continued. Somehow, this is about predicting the
future.

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.

-- Niels Bohr

Best wishes,

Vladimir Bondarenko

VM and GEMM architect
Co-founder, CEO, Mathematical Director

http://www.cybertester.com/ Cyber Tester, LLC

-------------------------------------------------------------

"We must understand that technologies
like these are the way of the future."

-------------------------------------------------------------
.

Quantcast