Quick Download and Install Guide¶

Not sure what to download? This short guide should get you started.

Determine your operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, etc.).
Determine your CPU type (32-bit, 64-bit or “atom” for Linux and Intel, or PowerPC for Mac OS X).
Do you want a source or binary distribution? Even if you want to do development, a precompiled version of Sage (binary release) can be used for that purpose. The source distribution is mostly needed if you want to see the sources of the Sage packages, also known as SPKGs.
If available, choose the appropriate binary version from one of the download mirrors. A list of mirrors is maintained at http://www.sagemath.org/mirrors.html
Follow the binary installation guide (http://www.sagemath.org/doc/installation/binary.html) to actually install a pre-compiled version of Sage. The source installation guide (http://www.sagemath.org/doc/installation/source.html) contains more detailed information on compiling Sage from source.

Troubleshooting¶

If no binary version is available for your system, download the source version. Note that Sage compiles on a wide variety of systems, but does not compile on every system.
If you have downloaded a binary version of Sage, upon loading Sage might complain about an illegal instruction error. In that case, a solution is available at the FAQ wiki page http://wiki.sagemath.org/faq#Otherquestions
Ask for help on the sage-support mailing list. This mailing list is also referred to as the sage-support Google group (http://groups.google.com/group/sage-support).