Mathematica 6 released

My last post today on Maple 11 noted that the install of this great piece of software under Ubuntu was not exactly seamless and that it just wasn't going to happen under Vista for awhile.  Enter Wolfram Research, probably Maple's most significant competitor, with a new release promising Vista compatibility, optimization for 64-bit Linux systems, and OS X support.  According to the Wolfram Website, Mathematica 6 brings quite a bit to the table:

"Building on two decades of world-class algorithm and software development, Mathematica 6 represents a dramatic breakthrough that immensely broadens Mathematica's scope and applicability—and redefines the very way we think about computation. Made possible by Mathematica's unique symbolic architecture, Mathematica 6 introduces a sweeping unification of language and interface concepts that makes possible a new level of automation in algorithmic computation, interactive manipulation and dynamic presentation—as well as a whole new way of interacting with the world of data."

While Mathematica has always excelled in graphical representations of data and mathematical models, the new release offers improved viewers and a higher degree of interactivity.  Mathematica also supports grid computing natively for incredible computational power.

Mathematica also offers improved support and new programmatic libraries for a variety of math applications.  Over 1200 code samples for such applications are available through the Wolfram Demonstrations Project.

Anyone who has had a chance to install this app, especially under Vista or Linux, talk back and let us know how it's going.