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Putting the Wolfram Language (and Mathematica) On Every Raspberry Pi

Posted by timothy on from the so-good-it's-named-after-two-animals dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Working with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, effective immediately, there's a pilot release of the Wolfram Language — as well as Mathematica—that will soon be bundled as part of the standard system software for every Raspberry Pi computer. Quite soon the Wolfram Language is going to start showing up in lots of places, notably on the web and in the cloud."

23 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Blatant Shill by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Quite soon the Wolfram Language is going to start showing up in lots of places, notably on the web and in the cloud

    lol no. It's far more likely that this language will be ignored by practically everyone. Remember Arc?

    1. Re:Blatant Shill by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      No. What's Arc?

      It is a Lisp dialect that nobody uses.

  2. bloat? by Bootsy · · Score: 2

    Why? I'm sure it's great, but...

    1. Re:bloat? by ebenupton · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, we discard the AxPROT AXI signals as they leave the ARM complex, so it's not possible to distinguish between trusted and untrusted transactions at the memory controller. BCM2835 is actually one of the few ARM APs *not* to use TrustZone technology.

    2. Re:bloat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      The British Empire is long dead.

      Not entirely, its former colonies still uses the imperial units.

    3. Re:bloat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, they use units which are named like the imperial units, but slightly differ in size.

  3. Web AND Cloud? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Isn't the web a "cloud" in of itself?

    1. Re:Web AND Cloud? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      You see, one is hosted on someone else's server (or yours, should you so choose), whereas the other is hosted on someone else's server (or yours, should you so choose).

    2. Re:Web AND Cloud? by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 2

      Isn't the web a "cloud" in of itself?

      More like a layer of smog...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  4. That's a bold claim. by dmomo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Raspberry Pi comes with no operating system. There are a number of Linux builds, including the recommended Debian build, which could be made to include the free Raspberry Pi version of the Wolfram Language and Mathmatica. To claim "every Raspberry Pi" is a bit hyperbolic.

    1. Re:That's a bold claim. by Fwipp · · Score: 4, Informative

      Looks like you're right. A few links deep found this: "Today, at the CBM education summit in New York, we announced a partnership with Wolfram Research to bundle a free copy of Mathematica and the Wolfram Language into future Raspbian images."

    2. Re:That's a bold claim. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      From personal communication with him I can say Stephen Wolfram is all about making money. There is no need for a commercial language, no one cares. If a student license costs 500 dollars or more, people rather use R (a really shitty language, but on par with mathematica) or fight their way with python.

    3. Re:That's a bold claim. by wiredlogic · · Score: 2

      That will allow desktop users to have a ghetto Mathematica by running Raspbian in a VM.

      --
      I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
    4. Re:That's a bold claim. by basecastula+ · · Score: 2

      ... might as well freely use the software that is maintained and updated regularly than fuss with getting pirated software to work, even if that amounts to less than a day of screwing around.

      It is actually really easy, Run the linux install script, then run the key generator that has worked for previous version. Enter key and you are done.

  5. Sample code by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    ego() ^ ego() ^ ego()

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  6. Or, free Mathematica with $35 purchase of a Pi* by strredwolf · · Score: 2

    An offer of over $300 in value! Get yours now!

    * Based on purchase of a Model B from direct authorized sellers. Does not include shipping or purchase at authorized resellers. Must be run from a Raspbery Pi computer board. Storage, display, keyboard, mouse, and power supply not included. Model A does not include Ethernet.

    --

    --
    # Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
    $Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
  7. tl;dr - Still Proprietary Software by Qubit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just in case you thought things might have changed:

    As with Wolfram|Alpha on the web, the Wolfram Language (and Mathematica) on the Raspberry Pi are going to be free for anyone to use for personal purposes. (There’s also going to be a licensing mechanism for commercial uses, other Linux ARM systems, and so on.)

    I give the RaspberryPi folks credit for making amazing and fun toy for children (that turns out to actually be a quite powerful and useful system for all ages, but shhhh, don't tell the kids! :-). I dearly wish that more of the RaspberryPI system could be Open Hardware, and love the fact that schoolchildren are getting their hands on their own computer that runs FOSS that they can program and tinker with and invent and dream.

    But I dearly hope that the Foundation folks say "Thanks but no thanks" to this offer of crippleware. The platform should remain open to all, and putting something like this in a default install will perpetuate a system of haves and have-nots. If Wolfram wants to market this independently, then that is their perogative, but educational tools given to kids should be reuse- and remix-friendly.

    --

    coding is life /* the rest is */
    1. Re:tl;dr - Still Proprietary Software by ebenupton · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I hope the Foundation folks say "Thank you, much appreciated", and let the kids decide.

      That was pretty much what I spent the day saying. Atmosphere among the educators in the room when Conrad announced it this morning was pretty electric. If people don't like the fact that it's only free as in beer, there's always Sage.

  8. Re:Why not just release it for the home users too? by jones_supa · · Score: 4, Funny

    He just wanted a larger user base for his comment by widely distributing it non-commercially.

  9. Young Steve Jobs Could"ve Used This by theodp · · Score: 2

    STEVE JOBS: A FEW MEMORIES As Mathematica was being developed, we showed it to Steve Jobs quite often. He always claimed he didn"t understand the math of it (though I later learned from a good friend of mine who had known Steve in high school that Steve had definitely taken at least one calculus course). But he made all sorts of make it simpler" suggestions about the interface and the documentation.

  10. Re: Why not just release it for the home users too by geminidomino · · Score: 2

    Which is exactly what he said, so how is that full of crap? $300 is too much for something he'd just putter around with.

  11. Re:Real Pi is faster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The real Pi was 3-4 seconds faster

    This is a completely meaningless number, unless you tell us what one of the total times is.

  12. wolfram on the pi? by spike+hay · · Score: 2

    I'm pretty sure his ego can't fit in 512 mb.

    --
    If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.