Read Me First

The cross platform resources of this folder are intended to provide users with a number of different solutions for utilizing various resources that are available for a variety of operating systems.

One of the frustrations of using these software resources is the availability of the software for different operating systems. It is often the case that there seems to be no way to use what you would like to use under one operating system.

The three most popular operating system environments are MS Windows, Linux and OS X. Linux involves the additional issue of distribution proliferation and package availability.

I am going to state openly that I am a Linux andUnix chauvanist. These are my operating system variants of choice. So this fact affects the recommendations which follow.

While all of the cross platform solutions of this folder are possible feasible solutions for the problem of getting to use what you want, depending on what that is, unless you really know what you are doing, most of these probably are not for you.

I have made life easier in this respect by creating a VirtualBox virtual machine named Xubuntu MathBox (click here). The title gives away the fact that this virtual machine file is based on Xubuntu GNU/Linux. This virtual machine has all the mathematics software featured by this site pre-installed and configured.

This virtual machine will work on MS Windows, Linux (most), and OS X. You merely have to download and install VirtualBox for your operating system (click here) and then download unzip the Xunubtu MathBox virtual machine file (click here) which is part of the zip archive file.

There are two zipped archive files. One file contains the XubuntuMathBox.vdi virtual machine file, the Virtual Box manual (PDF) and a "read me" text file which you should read obviously. The other is the same except it contains a XubuntuMathBox.vmdk virtual machine file. This file may be used with VirtualBox and also with the free VMware Player software (click here).