What is Fedora Scientific?
--------------------------
`Fedora Scientific
`__ is part of `Fedora
labs `__. It is targeted towards
new and existing Linux users using Linux for their scientific
computing. Such users would include students and researchers whose
work involves numerical experiments, preparing their results, writing
research reports and presenting them. Fedora Scientific aims to be
useful in all phases of the research pipeline.
The advantage of using Fedora Scientific is that you do not have to
install the packages which you always need every time you install
Linux. They are already available for you when you install Fedora
Scientific.
What is included?
=================
Fedora Scientific includes the most popular numerical tools (GNU
Octave, Sage, Scilab, and others) and libraries and programming support
for for C/C++, Java, Python (including IPython) and R. Plotting tools
such as gnuplot and tools for creating graphics such as Inkscape are
included. You can also create LaTex documents, including creating
presentations using Beamer.
Installation
============
The Scientific lab comes in two variants. A Live Image with KDE and Vagrant box. Please refer
to the `Download `__ page.
Here is a walk through video explaining a very basic installation of
Fedora Scientific in a virtual machine.
.. todo::
Installation video tutorial
Customisation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you are not a fan of KDE, you can install the desktop environment
of your choice using Fedora's package manager. For example, to install
the GNOME desktop environment, use the command, ``sudo yum group
install Gnome desktop``.
Next
====
The rest of this guide will help you learn about all the various
software tools and libraries that are available in Fedora
Scientific. Mostly, they will be links to resources where you can
learn more about them, but occasionally you may find tutorials and
howtos. Hopefully, the latter will grow over time.