Comments on: Introducing … Ubuntu Science Edition…

By: Brian Dean

Brian Dean — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 12:14:47 +0000

I am thinking that XBuntu is simply Ubuntu with software already added. So for example, PornBuntu would be Ubuntu with a few porn flicks added (probably with VLC player). It leads one to wonder, why not just use regular Ubuntu and install the extra stuff yourself?

By: Strony Internetowe KrakÃ³w

Strony Internetowe KrakÃ³w — Wed, 05 May 2010 06:40:50 +0000

For me standard ubuntu is a Cthulhubuntu 🙂

By: Jody Goldberg

Jody Goldberg — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:33:19 +0000

“OpenOffice calc is better at some importing tasks”
Could you bugzilla up a sample of any problems you hit? We’re always looking to improve things.

Thanks

By: ?STRING TOO LONG

?STRING TOO LONG — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:23:09 +0000

A large script chock full of ‘apt-get install’s and a bit of configuration could transform any generic Ubuntu installation into a “Scienceybuntu” box pretty effortlessly. A collection of such scripts could cover lots of different disciplines.

That’s basically what a Debian metapackage does–

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MetaPackages

“ubuntu-restricted-extras” is one you’ve probably run into already.

By: gruebait

gruebait — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:03:52 +0000

A large script chock full of ‘apt-get install’s and a bit of configuration could transform any generic Ubuntu installation into a “Scienceybuntu” box pretty effortlessly. A collection of such scripts could cover lots of different disciplines.

Sounds like the sort of obvious thing that would be out there, somewhere…

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Mon, 03 May 2010 10:40:20 +0000

I like the graph function in Gnumeric. Harder to learn but then more powerful. Gnumeric has more science-oriented functions.

OpenOffice calc is better at some importing tasks, but otherwise, on a one to one comparison for me, Gnumeric seems better. But calc is good to. I actually use them both.

Also, all the OO software has this annoying habit of making me click extra, unnecessary buttons when it starts up much of the time. I suppose this is to make MS users feel more comfortable. Gnumeric is more GNU like in that regard.

By: LightningRose

LightningRose — Mon, 03 May 2010 10:22:57 +0000

Except for the occasional loan amortization program, I really don’t use spreadsheets, so I’m curious as to why you prefer Gnumeric over the OpenOffice spreadsheet?

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 03 May 2010 09:59:04 +0000

There is already something called Scibuntu. It seems mostly to be aimed at the life sciences, but has some fairly cool astronomyphysics apps. It also has some good math and stats tools.

http://scibuntu.sourceforge.net/

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 03 May 2010 08:05:48 +0000

For graphs we use
GNU Plot
xmgrace

For diagrams:
XFig

I’d put a beefed up Python on. I know you already said programming languages but if you include libraries like scipy/numpy and matplotlib then it becomes as powerful as something like MatLab.

By: Marion Delgado

Marion Delgado — Mon, 03 May 2010 04:24:24 +0000

And hey, if it takes “Jesus Junk” to get people to use Ubuntu, what’s wrong with that?

I do like Greg’s list of features. The first thing I install is definitely R. Ubuntus already have Perl, Python and Ruby. I would use OpenOffice instead of gnumeric, although I would use gnumeric on an OS X box because I have had huge accuracy problems with R4CALC and NeoOffice.