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.