Maxima

Long-term owners

I remember using it 20 years ago. very nice.

Dec 2025 · comment

What hackers pick instead

• Wolfram AlphaPeople recommend Wolfram Alpha for math answers and step-by-step solving, but critics say it handles plain-language questions poorly.28recommend
• GeoGebraRecommended for visual geometry and math intuition, such as seeing complex numbers and quickly catching procedural errors. Caveat: one critic found it less challenging and less deep than MA.7recommend
• DerivePeople recommend Derive as a fast Windows app for symbolic math and call it more sophisticated than some alternatives. One critic notes there is no PC version anymore.5recommend
• GeomaticPeople recommend it as a fun, command-driven geometry studio with autodiff and a helpful example, though newcomers find it hard to grasp at first and it is not very mobile friendly.5recommend
• Polypad by MathigonPeople recommend Polypad for its visually appealing interface, which they say works as well as its landing page suggests. No caveats were raised.5recommend

Every quote

The 9 most detailed of 12 comments. Each links to the original.

1. I've used Maxima much longer than Mathematica has existed.

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation”

2. both Maxima and FriCAS are good examples (Math CAS)

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Let Over Lambda is free online to read as pdf”

3. I remember using it 20 years ago. very nice.

   Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Wolfram Compute Services”

4. a great tool for symbolic computation

   Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Wolfram Compute Services”

5. Nowadays you can learn damn Calculus on your own and install Maxima from any distro with online guides and tutorials.

   Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Why Real Life is better than IRC (2000)”

6. Of these only Sage, Maxima and Woxi were capable of giving the expected answers.

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation”

7. He can use Maxima to locally solve the equations.

   Recommends · May 2026 · in “We are Poles, so, of course, we print in Latin”

8. GNU Maxima it's the best of both grounds.

   Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “The R47: A new physical RPN calculator”

9. I can run Maxima on my phone. Heaven!

   Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “FlowCE: Calculus on your TI-84 Plus CE”