# What types of research applications are appropriate for system-wide installations vs. a local installation in my project space?

**URL:** <https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/what-types-of-research-applications-are-appropriate-for-system-wide-installations-vs-a-local-installation-in-my-project-space/2301>\
**Category:** RMACC\
**Created:** [April 19, 2022, 9:41pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/what-types-of-research-applications-are-appropriate-for-system-wide-installations-vs-a-local-installation-in-my-project-space/2301 "2022-04-19T21:41:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Layla](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/5daacb/32.png) [@Layla](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/Layla)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 9:41pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/what-types-of-research-applications-are-appropriate-for-system-wide-installations-vs-a-local-installation-in-my-project-space/2301/1 "2022-04-19T21:41:41Z")

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What types of research applications are appropriate for system-wide installations vs. a local installation in my project space?

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**Author:** ![craigearley](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@craigearley](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/craigearley)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/what-types-of-research-applications-are-appropriate-for-system-wide-installations-vs-a-local-installation-in-my-project-space/2301/2 "2022-04-20T17:55:55Z")

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Our go-to example of a local install is probably a Conda environment (or virtualenv etc.) to support Python versions and libraries users can generally handle on their own.

Systemwide we provide drivers and utilities local to each host. We also provide a large suite of software modules for programs like gcc and CUDA, which may have many users and where the specific version matters.

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**Author:** ![AnthonyLee](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@AnthonyLee](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/AnthonyLee)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 4:25pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/what-types-of-research-applications-are-appropriate-for-system-wide-installations-vs-a-local-installation-in-my-project-space/2301/3 "2024-08-08T16:25:40Z")

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To elaborate on Craig’s post.  
I only recently learned that I should be using the system-wide installed version of conda. Here is more information on [how to use the system-wide version of conda / anaconda](https://curc.readthedocs.io/en/latest/software/python.html#activate-the-curc-anaconda-environment) (even [mamba is available on Alpine](https://curc.readthedocs.io/en/latest/software/python.html#mamba-package-manager)).