Software

(Please contact help@sns.ias.edu for any additional software requests).

The following list is not comprehensive. It comprises recommended software and any software added to the respective platforms. Software that is included by default in a given operating system (for example, Edge on Windows) is not mentioned.

All Linux software is accessible to Windows and macOS users via secure shell or xterm.

Windows Remote Desktop is available to all Linux, macOS and Windows desktop computers.

Some software is marked "optional".  You may install many of the software available on the web provided that the software is able to run and be installed in your own home directory. You are also free to install all applications available in the Apple AppStore.

 

Title

Description

Categories

Installed Platform(s)

VLC Media Player

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various streaming protocols.

Media

macOS

Dropbox

Dropbox is a cloud-based data storage service that makes file synchronization and sharing easy. IAS provides access to an Institute-managed Dropbox service for academic and organizational use to all faculty, scholars and staff on an opt-in basis.

Internet

Linux, macOS, Windows

Google Chrome

The Google Chrome web browser

Internet

macOS, Windows

Adobe Creative Cloud

Includes Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash Professional, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Acrobat, and Bridge

Office, Publishing, Internet, Image Manipulation, Drawing

Contact Computing Staff for access

Overleaf

Online LaTeX-based collaborative writing and publishing tool.

Publishing

Contact Computing Staff for access

Povray

A tool for creating 3D graphics

Visualization

Linux

Code42

A cloud backup and recovery tool

Internet

macOS

PAW

Physics Analysis Workstation from CERN

Visualization

Linux

OpenDX

Open source visualization software package based on IBM's Visualization Data Explorer

Visualization

Linux

Matlab

MATLAB® is a high-level language and interactive environment that enables you to perform computationally intensive tasks faster than with traditional programming languages such as C, C++, and Fortran.

Mathematics, Visualization

Linux, macOS (optional), Windows (optional)

Base System Software

Each operating system includes its default software packages.

 

Linux, macOS, Windows, Windows Remote Desktop

Sublime

Text editor for code.

 

macOS

Atom

Text editor for code.

 

macOS

PyCharm

Python IDE

 

macOS

Slack

Messaging application.

 

macOS

Python

Python is a general-purpose high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability.

Programming Languages

Linux

Xcode

Xcode is a suite of tools for developing software on macOS, developed by Apple.

Compilers, Programming Languages

macOS

gnuplot

Gnuplot is a portable command-line driven graphing utility for linux, OS/2, MS Windows, OSX, VMS, and many other platforms.

Visualization

Linux

Subversion

An open-source revision control system, useful for solo or collaborative software development and paper editing.

Revision Control

Linux

GnuPG

Encryption for files and email, works well with Enigmail on Mozilla Thunderbird.

Privacy, Security

Linux

OpenOffice

 

Office, Publishing

Linux

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is an office suite of interrelated desktop applications for the Microsoft Windows and macOS operating systems.

Office, Publishing

macOS, Windows

Keynote, Pages & Numbers

Apple's productivity apps

Office, Publishing

macOS

Mathematica

Mathematica is a computational software program used in scientific, engineering, and mathematical fields and other areas of technical computing. Faculty, members and staff can also request home use Mathematica licenses by contacting the SNS help desk.

Mathematics

Linux, macOS, Windows

Xming

Xming is an implementation of the X Window System for Microsoft Windows operating systems. A xterm desktop icon will activate Xming.

Integration

Windows

WinEdt

WinEdt is a shareware ASCII editor and shell for Microsoft Windows. It is primarily used for the creation of TeX (or LaTeX) documents, but can also be used to edit HTML or any other type of text file.

Office, Publishing

Windows

SSH Secure Shell

Provides secure shell access to various devices, particularly Unix and Linux hosts, inside and outside IAS.

Integration, Privacy, Security

Windows

Skype

Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet.

Internet, Communications

macOS, Windows

Mozilla Thunderbird

The email client we recommend.

Internet, Communications

Linux, macOS, Windows

Mozilla Firefox

A web browser.

Internet

Linux, macOS, Windows

Maple

Maple is a general-purpose commercial computer algebra system.

Mathematics

Linux, macOS (optional)

MikTeX

The TeX system for Windows.

Publishing

Windows

Java

Java is a general-purpose, concurrent, class-based, object-oriented language that is specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. Versions vary.

Compilers, Programming Languages

Linux, macOS, Windows

IrfanView

An all-purpose graphics viewer for Windows

Office, Visualization

Windows

ICS Viewer

Used for some grant applications.

Publishing

Windows

GSview

A graphical interface for ghostscript, usually used as a postscript file viewer.

Publishing, Visualization

Windows

Ghostscript

Converts and renders postscript.

Conversion, Publishing, Visualization

Linux, Windows

Adobe Reader

Displays PDF documents.

Office, Publishing

Linux, Windows

7-zip

Open-source file archive compressor and decompressor for Windows.

Office, Conversion

Windows

MacTeX

The TeX system for macOS

Publishing

macOS

Singular

A computer algebra system for polynomial computations

Mathematical

Linux

xfig

An interactive vector figure generation tool. See adding LaTeX figures in xfig.

Drawing

Linux

dia

Useful for diagrams.

Drawing

Linux

IFRIT

3-dimensional visualization tool

Astronomical, Visualization

Linux

IRAF

Image Reduction and Analysis Facility

Astronomical

Linux

HEAsoft

Ftools + Xanadu

Astronomical

Linux

Root

Object oriented data analysis framework

Astronomical

Linux

Supermongo

An interactive plotting package for drawing graphs

Astronomical, Publishing, Visualization

Linux

SAS

Reduce and analyze data collected by the XMM-Newton observatory

Astronomical

Linux

Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT)

A complete and integrated system for Hubble Space Telescope (HST) proposal preparation

Astronomical

Linux

ds9

Astronomical data vizualization

Astronomical, Visualization

Linux

gcc

The GNU compiler collection

Compilers

Linux

Intel Fortran Compiler

Includes Fortran 90 compiler

Compilers

Linux

ImageMagick

Reads, converts and writes images in a variety of formats

Conversion, Image Manipulation

Linux

netpbm-progs

Contains many scripts for converting from one graphics file format to another

Conversion, Image Manipulation

Linux

pdftex, pdflatex

Convert latex to PDF

Conversion, Publishing

Linux, macOS

ps2pdf, pdf2ps

Convert between postscript and PDF

Conversion, Publishing, Image Manipulation

Linux, macOS

CERNLIB

 

Libraries

Linux

CFITSIO

 

Libraries

Linux

FFTW

 

Libraries

Linux

HDF

 

Libraries

Linux

IDL Astronomy User's Library

 

Libraries

Linux

LAPACK

 

Libraries

Linux

NAG Libraries

 

Libraries

Linux

Numerical Recipes

 

Libraries

Linux

PGPLOT

 

Libraries

Linux

Git

Git is a free & open source, distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.

Revision Control

Linux

Aquamacs

Emacs editor for the Mac

Publishing, Office

macOS

PAMIR

Multidimensional adaptive integration

Mathematics

Linux
(Any IAS Member can download it to their PC from the PAMIR website)

GVim

Advanced text editor in Windows that provides the power of the de-facto Unix editor 'Vi'

 

Windows

SumatraPDF

PDF, eBook (ePub, Mobi), XPS, DjVu, CHM, Comic Book (CBZ and CBR) reader.

Publishing

Windows

Inkscape

An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

Drawing

macOS, Windows

XQuartz

a component of the X Window System for macOS. Previously X11.

 

macOS

Windows App

Windows App for Mac (previously named Microsoft Remote Desktop) is your gateway to securely connect to Windows including remote PCs and admin-provided virtual apps and desktops.

 

macOS

Zoom

Video conferencing

 

macOS, Windows

TeXnicCenter

An integrated documentation environment (IDE) for LaTeX. That means that TeXnicCenter integrates all the functionality you need to create, write, build, fix, view and print your LaTeX documents.

 

Windows

WinDjView

A document viewer for Windows with tabbed interface, continuous scrolling and advanced printing options.

 

Windows