Anaconda Glossary

Conda

conda (note the lower case) is an open source package and environment manager that makes it quick and easy to install, run, and upgrade complex data science and machine learning environments like scikit-learn, TensorFlow, and SciPy. Thousands of Python and R packages can be installed with conda on Windows, MacOS X, Linux and IBM Power. Conda is primarily a command-line application, although it can be used via GUIs such as Anaconda Navigator or some IDEs like PyCharm

Defaults

"Defaults" refers to the three default channels from http://repo.anaconda.com and repo.anaconda.cloud: main, r, and msys2. Channel 'r' contains R packages (a different language to Python) and channel 'msys2' contains libraries for Windows OS.

Anaconda.org

A cloud package repository hosting service at https://www.anaconda.org. Packages created locally can be published to Anaconda.org to be shared with others. Free accounts on Anaconda.org can publish public packages. Paid subscriptions to Anaconda.org can designate packages as private to be shared with authorized users. Referred to in some places as "Anaconda Cloud"

Distribution

A collection of packages designed to work together if installed at the same time. Examples: Anaconda Individual Edition, RedHat, Ubuntu. A distribution is typically installed as a batch, consisting of a particular collection of versions meant to be interoperable, whereas a channel typically consists of many different versions of each package, meant for picking and choosing as needed, rather than all installed at once.

Conda Environment

A conda environment is a superset of Python virtual environments. Conda environments make it easy to cleanly separate different projects (even if they use different versions of Python) and avoid problems with different dependencies and version requirements. A conda environment maintains its own files, directories, and paths so that you can work with specific versions of libraries and/or Python itself without affecting other Python projects.

Conda Package

A conda package is a binary tarball containing system-level libraries, Python/R modules, executable programs, or other components. Conda keeps track of dependencies between packages and platform specifics, making it simple to create working operating system-specific environments from different combinations of packages.

Anaconda Navigator

A desktop graphical user interface (GUI) included in Anaconda Distribution that allows you to easily use and manage IDEs, conda packages, environments, channels and notebooks without the need to use the command line interface.

Repository

A source of package files, usually a server (Internet or on-premise), that can be accessed by a user when they wish to install new packages. Examples: Anaconda Team Edition (our paid offering), Anaconda.org, PyPI.

Package Format

A standard that specifies how to store files and metadata together in a single compressed file that can be distributed easily. Examples: .conda (pronounced "dot conda"), wheels, RPMs.

Package Manager

An application that allows users or administrators to install, update, and remove packages from an environment, usually by contacting one or more repositories. Examples: conda (the program), pip, yum, apt.

Anaconda Server

Anaconda Server is our latest generation repository for all things Anaconda. With support for all major operating systems, the repository serves as your central conda, PyPI, and CRAN packaging resource for desktop users, development clusters, CI/CD systems, and production containers.

Anaconda Project

Anaconda-project is a way to bundle your data science code and configuration together to make it more easily portable. An Anaconda Project YAML file contains a Conda environment plus a record of at least one command to invoke in that environment, so that together it captures an executable (and often deployable) unit: a command to run in some environment. AE5 uses anaconda-project to specify what can be "one click deployed", but anaconda-project can be used anywhere conda can be used.

Anaconda Professional

Formerly Commercial Edition (abbreviated "CE" and/or "ACE") The world's most popular open-source package distribution and management experience, optimized for commercial use and compliance with our Terms of Service, "TOS"

"ARR"- Annual Recurring Revenue

A key metric used by SaaS or subscription businesses that have term subscription agreements, meaning there is a defined contract length. It is defined as the value of the contracted recurring revenue components of your term subscriptions normalized to a one-year period ("how much money is expected from subscribers per year")

Channel

A server-hosted repository of pre-packaged software packages, to be used by conda, the package manager. The "defaults" channel used by conda is maintained and hosted by Anaconda, Inc. There are other 3rd party channels, such as bioconda and conda-forge.

Package

A software artifact, consisting of both files and descriptive metadata, that is installed as a single unit. Examples: NumPy, Pandas, TensorFlow.

CVEs

Packages that are curated by Anaconda for inclusion in Anaconda repos will have all CVEs triaged by the packaging team, making it clear which versions of the package are affected by vulnerabilities and which versions are not affected. Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) — Anaconda 6.1.4 documentation

Jupyter

Jupyter is a popular open source IDE for building interactive Notebooks and is a project of the Jupyter Foundation. Jupyter notebooks consist of a series of cells, each of which may contain computer code (in Python, Julia, R, or other languages), human readable text and images (as HTML or Markdown), or program output (numerical results, strings, tables, figures, etc). Depending on context, "Jupyter" may refer to what is now called "classic notebook", the single-document interface originally supported, or JupyterLab, a multi-document environment that was meant to replace classic notebooks but now coexists with them.

JupyterHub

JupyterHub is an open source system for hosting centralized multi-user access to Jupyter notebooks. Users can install classic Jupyter or JupyterLab on their own machines locally, but if they have access to a JupyterHub then they don't need to install anything; they just visit the website for that JH instance and use it from their web browser. JupyterHub allows administrators to provide Python (and other languages in some cases) environments to their users from a centrally managed location, freeing users from the burden of installing and maintaining Jupyter and a Python environment locally while also allowing centralized control over what Python environments are made available in an organization. JupyterHub runs only on Linux or Mac systems, and requires a Linux VM to run on a Windows machine. Most users run JH on a single host machine, supporting up to dozens of users, but if Kubernetes is available, JH can run in a scalable mode with user sessions running on any of a large pool of machines.

Kubernetes

Kubernetes is a system for managing large numbers of Docker-style containers distributed across a computing cluster. Kubernetes provides system administrators the power to dynamically expand and reduce the amount of computational power allocated overall and to specific workloads, while being significantly more complex to administer than individual VMs or a single machine running Docker.

MiniConda

Miniconda is the smallest possible Anaconda Distribution download, and just includes conda and a minimal python environment. It is very common for continuous integration and other cloud-deployed systems to set up their python environment by first installing miniconda, and then creating a specific python environment as needed.

Anaconda Nucleus

Nucleus is the Anaconda Platform. Nucleus comprises all features available to consumers and customers, allowing access based upon subscription level. Formerly nicknamed "Big Bend".

Anaconda Embedded

Our program for partners that include Anaconda packages, products, technologies, or repo access in a product they distribute/offer for commercial purposes.

"PQL" - Product Qualified Lead

Someone or an organization who has passed a measurable threshold that indicates they are a good candidate to become a paying customer.

Anaconda Repository

The Anaconda Repository is a public repository of conda packages maintained by Anaconda Inc. A subset of these packages are included in the Anaconda Distribution installer. Anyone can download any package from the Anaconda Repository. The channel "main" (included in the default channels by, er, default) contains those packages created by our own team.