Wolfram Language and Mathematica Free on Every Raspberry Pi

As a random computer engineer, I find using mathematica to be extremely convenient when trying to grok a problem or lay out a first attempt at a solution. Of course it isn't really helpful when dealing with glue issues (i.e. making software work together) but it is really good at letting you experiment at a high level and put together an algorithm to process/interpret/transform/generate some data.

I say it's good for high level experimentation because basically every function/transform/operation/solver you could ever need is present in the standard library [1] and stuff "just works". IMHO it's not really something you'd want in production but it lets you get an MVP for a given problem/solution working faster than any other tool I've used and all while rarely needing to even consider a 3rd party library. You can then focus on just mapping that MVP to whatever language/library/ecosystem you are actually working in.

1. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/

From the Rpi Mathematica bundle license agreement:

Permitted Uses and Installations:

Subject to the terms of this Agreement and Your acceptance thereof, WRI grants You a non-exclusive license to use the Product solely for personal or educational purposes on a Model A or Model B Raspberry Pi computer. You are also authorized to:

- maintain one archival copy of the Software on storage media; and

- author and distribute Computable Document Format™ (CDF) files consistent with any associated licensing terms.

Prohibited Uses:

All uses of the Software and other elements of the Product not specifically stated in the Permitted Uses and Installations section of this Agreement or otherwise set forth in alternative or supplemental license agreements or terms of use are prohibited, including, without limitation:

- directly or indirectly using the Product for commercial purposes;

- decompiling, disassembling or reverse engineering the Software;

- modifying the Software in any manner, except those portions written in the Wolfram Language and included as examples;

- distributing, publishing, transferring, sublicensing, lending, leasing, renting or otherwise making available the Product or any portion of the Software, including collections of data, except as permitted at https://www.wolfram.com/components for distributing Wolfram Language code;

- copying or allowing copying of the Product or any elements of the Product, except as permitted for the maintenance of an archival copy of the Software as allowed by the Permitted Uses and Installations section of this Agreement;

- allowing access to the Product by any user other than Licensee;

- removing any copyright, trademark or other proprietary notices from the Product;

- installing separate components of each Controlling Process or Computation Process on separate computers, with the exception that the front end of a Controlling Process can be on a separate computer from the associated kernel;

- using the Software for any illegal purpose or to create malicious programs, including but not limited to creating computer viruses and malware or denying computer bandwidth to WRI and its affiliates and users; and

- using a password, activation key or other means of accessing the Software other than as specifically authorized by WRI.

https://www.wolfram.com/legal/agreements/wolfram-mathematica...

Linux distros are not by any means walled gardens. You can always install new software by building it from source or often from just downloading something someone else built (as long as it's statically linked or you have the shared libs).

Windows is also not a walled garden but to a lesser degree than Linux. It is far harder to get a "standard" build environment up for windows simply because Microsoft refuses to distribute the UCRT (or VSRedist) build libraries in a form that doesn't require manually digging through installer internals or setting up Visual Studio. It can be done for free & legally but it's a significant pain in the ass. Regardless of how annoying it is, there is no financial/legal barrier to building software for windows and you can trivially install 3rd party software or even execute it without installing.

Android I somewhat agree is a walled garden in practice (certain features are limited to gApp/play store apps only and setting up 3rd party play stores or apps is annoying) but by the simple fact that you can build apps for android or install them without any financial or legal barriers, it can't realistically be called a walled garden (maybe a hedge maze might be more accurate).

MacOS isn't entirely a walled garden despite getting pretty close (kinda like a worse dev/install experience from windows + *nix).

iOS however is 100% a walled garden.

Point being that out of every OS you mentioned, exactly 1 of them qualifies and the rest do not (despite having anti-user/anti-competitive practices)

It used to be the big differentiator was the ability to do symbolic math and actually solve equations. Maple could also do it, as could the TI89, so I never really got into it. It was just a huge difference from Matlab.

But if I have an actually nasty equation to solve, like a system of differential equations with erf functions or something, I do actually go to wolfram alpha for help. It happens more often than I'd like, it's especially nice that no matter how nasty the equations you can still use units.

Go try disabling the telemetry on Windows 10 after each update. On Linux, you can compile stuff from source anywhere. Or even use pkgsrc on top of any distro.