Anaconda is an open-source variant of the Python programming language designed for large-scale data processing, predictive analysis, scientific computers, and aims to simplify managing and implementing packages.
Anaconda is used typically for programming in Python and among the packages often used in this distribution, we can specify NumPy, Spyder, Numba.
Anaconda can run on various OS such as Windows, Linux, OSX, allowing developers to have high portability.
Packages
- NumPy allows users to work with a matrix, allowing developers to create standard mat lab operations, while Numba speeds up calculations due to the Just-In-Time (JIT) code compiler, which makes the code section under the JIT decorator be compiled much faster.
- The Python code can be compiled both on a CPU and a GPU.
- Intel MKL is a library that supports vectorial / matrix computing.
- Anaconda Python is a complete open-source package which includes RStudio, iPython, Jupyter Notebook, JupyterLab, Spyder, Glue, Orange.
- Anaconda allows new users to adopt it easily, as the distribution comes with more than 1,000 data packs as well as the Conda and Virtual Environment Manager, eliminating the need to learn to install each independent library.
- According to the Anaconda website, Python and R packages from Anaconda Repository are treated and compiled in a secure environment so you get optimized binaries that work in any system.
- We recommend using Anaconda Navigator, a desktop graphical user interface (GUI) system that includes links to all included applications, including RStudio, iPython, Jupyter Notebook, JupyterLab, Spyder, Glue, and Orange.
- The default environment is Python 3.6, but you can easily install Python 3.5, Python 2.7 or R. The documentation is incredibly detailed and there is an excellent community of users for extra support.
Installing Anaconda
md5sum Anaconda-Linux-x86_64.sh
bash Anaconda-Linux-x86_64.sh
Afterwards the installation will complete itself in about 5 minutes. After completing the installation, we enter Anaconda Navigator through:
anaconda-navigator
Every time Anaconda Navigator launches, it will check if new software is available and it will ask you to update if needed. Anaconda can update successfully without returning to the command line.
You can also manually update by entering the following command:
conda update anaconda-navigator
We can explore and install apps once the Navigator is launched, as we are free to explore the range of applications that are included in Anaconda Distribution.
According to the official docs, the 64-bit Python 3.6 version of Anaconda supports 499 packages.
One of the advantages of using the Anaconda distribution is the ability to create multiple environments. For example, if we wanted to create a Python 2.9 environment instead of Python 3.6, we would put the following command into the terminal:
conda create -n py29 python = 2.9 anaconda
Conda handles the entire installation and in order to launch it, we need to open the command prompt and enter:
anaconda-navigator
Select the py29 environment from the Apps on drop-down menu in the Anaconda GUI.