Available software#

The Secure Research Desktops (SRDs) available in each SRE use the latest Ubuntu LTS release.

  • When a Data Safe Haven is first deployed a reference virtual machine image is created that uses the latest available version of each required software packages.

  • Any packages installed using the apt package manager are further updated whenever a new desktop is deployed into any SRE.

The easiest way to update an SRD is by redeploying it - it may be possible for your System Manager to update software packages in-place but this is only recommended in the case of essential security fixes where the project cannot afford the downtime involved in a redeploy.

Programming languages / compilers#

  • C programming language

  • C++ programming language

  • clojure programming language

  • DotNet runtime environment

  • F# programming language

  • Fortran programming language

  • gcc compilers

  • Guile programming language

  • Haskell language and packaging tools

  • Java runtime environment

  • octave programming language

  • Python programming language and pip package manager

    • plus ability to install additional libraries

  • R programming language

    • plus ability to install additional libraries

  • Racket programming language

  • ruby programming language

  • Rust language and cargo package manager

  • scala programming language

Editors / IDEs#

  • emacs editor

  • nano editor

  • PyCharm IDE

  • RStudio IDE

  • vimeditor

  • Visual Studio Code IDE

Writing / presentation tools#

  • LaTeX / pdflatex / xelatex for technical writing

  • LibreOffice for creating documents and presentations

Database access tools#

  • Beekeeper Studio desktop database management software

  • psql a command line PostgreSQL client

  • unixodbc-dev driver for interacting with Microsoft SQL databases

Other useful software#

  • Firefox browser

  • git version control tool

  • weka data mining tools