Anaconda is the easiest way to perform Python/R data science and machine learning on a single machine. Developed for solo practitioners, it is the toolkit that equips you to work with thousands of open-source packages and libraries.
I am trying to get Anaconda3 for Python 3.4 running on my Mac. (OSX 10.9.5) In the instructions from the Continuum Analytics after the installation this is what needs to be done. I installed it on. I'm finally doing what I never thought I would, which is installing Anaconda on my Mac desktop, as an alternative to Homebrew and a way to get Jupyter Notebo.
Open Source
Anaconda Individual Edition is the world’s most popular Python distribution platform with over 20 million users worldwide. You can trust in our long-term commitment to supporting the Anaconda open-source ecosystem, the platform of choice for Python data science.
Conda Packages
Search our cloud-based repository to find and install over 7,500 data science and machine learning packages. With the conda-install command, you can start using thousands of open-source Conda, R, Python and many other packages.
Manage Environments
Individual Edition is an open source, flexible solution that provides the utilities to build, distribute, install, update, and manage software in a cross-platform manner. Conda makes it easy to manage multiple data environments that can be maintained and run separately without interference from each other.
Build machine learning models
Build and train machine learning models using the best Python packages built by the open-source community, including scikit-learn, TensorFlow, and PyTorch.
The open-source community at your fingertips
With Anaconda Individual Edition, the open-source world is your oyster. From robotics to data visualization, you can access the open-source software you need for projects in any field.
User interface makes learning easier
Anaconda Navigator is a desktop GUI that comes with Anaconda Individual Edition. It makes it easy to launch applications and manage packages and environments without using command-line commands. Expedite your data science journey with easy access to training materials, documentation, and community resources including Anaconda.org.
Introduction
This is a reference post.
I've realized that I'm explaining how to install Anaconda over and over again in most of my posts, often messing up with the instructions!
So to make it easier for me and, most importantly, safer for you, I'm summarizing the instructions in this short post, and I will refer to it from now on.
I'll present you with two installation methods for Anaconda:
- Graphical installation of Anaconda: recommended if you are new to Anaconda.
- Command line installation of Miniconda: recommended if you want a fast and light install, and if you want to work with the command line.
What is Anaconda?
As stated on Anaconda's website:
With over 6 million users, the open source Anaconda Distribution is the fastest and easiest way to do Python and R data science and machine learning on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. It's the industry standard for developing, testing, and training on a single machine.
In a nutshell, the anaconda team maintains a repository of more than 1400 data science packages, all compatible, and provides tools to install a version of python and these packages at the push of a button, and under five minutes.
In particular, Anaconda contains:
- scikit-learn : one of leading machine-learning toolkits for python. It will provide an easy access to the handwritten digits dataset, and allow us to define and train our neural network in a few lines of code
- numpy : core package providing powerful tools to manipulate data arrays, such as our digit images
- matplotlib : visualization tools, essential to check what we are doing
- jupyter : the web server that will allow you to follow this tutorial and run the code directly in your web browser.
- and much, much more!
Graphical installation of Anaconda
Download anaconda for your system:
- Choose either the python 3.X or the python 2.X version. Please make sure to chose the version specified in the tutorial you want to run. If you don't know, take the python 3.X version
- If you're using Windows or Linux, make sure to pick the 64 bit installer if you have a 64 bit system.
Then run the installer, and finally start the Anaconda Navigator. On windows, you can find it by clicking the windows start button, and typing anaconda.
In the Anaconda Navigator, you can click on the Environments tab and then select the base (root) environment to see which packages are installed, and to install additional packages. You can also create new environments as shown below.
Finally, to start using it, go to the Home tab and launch the jupyter notebook. This will redirect you to the jupyter notebook main page in your browser.
You can now create and load jupyter notebooks.
You're done!
Command line installation of Miniconda
Download Miniconda for your system:
- Choose either the python 3.X or the python 2.X version. Please make sure to chose the version specified in the tutorial you want to run. If you don't know, take the python 3.X version
- If you're using Windows or Linux, make sure to pick the 64 bit installer if you have a 64 bit system.
On linux, you can download the bash installer from the command line with wget like this (replace with the link you need from the Miniconda page):
On the mac, you can download it with curl:
After this is done, open a bash terminal and type the following (use the name of the installer that you have just downloaded)
Download Anaconda Python For Mac
Answer all questions, and you're done with the installation.
Log out from your machine, and log in again (or start a login shell)
Then, you can use the command line to:
Anaconda Prompt Mac
- create conda environments
- select the version of python you want
- install the packages you need.
I usually do everything in one go like this:
This creates a new environment called testenv based on python 3.7, and with the ipython package.
You can then activate the environment, and test that things are as you expect:
Anaconda Mac Download
You see that python is indeed version 3.7, and that ipython is there. You can start ipython.
Anaconda For Mac Os
After Miniconda is installed, don't hesitate to create new environments not to mix things up. For example, I have a dozen environments: a python 3.X environment for this blog, a python 2.X one for some tasks at work, another one for activities related to OpenCV... And every time I write an article for this blog, I create a fresh environment to test the installation recipe, before deleting it right away.