In this configuration, Linux Macysma 421 provides re-executable scientific notebooks with animated graphics. The PC Windows interface includes Macsyma's MathTips Advisor and DataViewer for numerical data tables. The PC client can also use Macsyma's NumKit package, which speeds up most large numerical matrix operations. Macsyma's on-line help includes 1,300 executable demonstrations, which are accessible through the help menus. These demonstrations cover everything from putting two fractions over a common denominator to finding the shape of the universe from Einstein's field equations.
Academic prices are available.
Linux was originally created by Linus Torvalds while he was at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Torvalds set out to create an improved Minix, a small Unix system developed by Andy Tanenbaum. Linux has been developed with the help of many programmers across the Internet. The acquisition also brings with it a valuable distribution network. At a meeting in December, board chairman George Riordan retired, and Thomas Curry, the chief executive, stepped down.