For as long as many people can remember, mathematicians have been held hostage by closed, proprietary software that they need to do their work. Almost everyone loosely associated with academic math or stats know about Matlab or Mathematica — closed software that takes advantage of their monopoly with outrageous licensing fees of several thousand dollars. Not only that, but in order to protect their proprietary code, certain calculations have to run “blind,” an absurdity in the mind of an academic who is obsessed with peer review.

But the days of that monopoly are numbered. In the next week or two, mathematicians will be attending the joint meeting of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America in San Diego. And at this meeting, an international group of developers will debut their free software program, Sage, which intends to become the “best mathematical software in the world” — and given free software development methodologies, this goal is entirely achievable.

Once again, free software will shake the very foundations of yet another industry and academic institution. There is always so much for us to be proud about as free software supporters!