What are the current differences between MikTeX and TeXLive? This question has many answers, but most of them are quite old, and it isn't clear what is still relevant, especially since MikTeX has undergone significant changes recently (notably - added support for Linux and macOS). Please edit the first answer as community wiki, and add criteria for comparison. Feel free to add explanations regarding whether some criterion gives an advantage to one of the distributions
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5You are free to add new answers to that question but this is definitely a duplicate question that would normally be closed as duplicate. – David Carlisle Mar 02 '23 at 11:59
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3@DavidCarlisle as I wrote, that question has answers which ar >10 years old, and I didn't get an answer as to whether they are still relevant. And some are simply now false. These answers have many upvotes, so they appear on top. Is there another way to highlight the current correct answers? – Ur Ya'ar Mar 03 '23 at 14:54
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But if you think it's better, I can move the updating answer to that question. – Ur Ya'ar Mar 03 '23 at 14:59
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1boooooo. This should not be closed as a duplicate. The old post is very clearly out-of-date, with the accepted answer being from 2011 for christ's sake. This post's focus on 2023+ comparison is an entirely different question and should be treated as such. – mcmuffin6o Feb 07 '24 at 21:47
1 Answers
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Supported operating system
- TeXLive: Linux, macOS, Windows
- MikTeX: Linux, macOS, Windows
Open source
- TeXLive: Yes
- MikTeX: Yes
Maintainer(s)
- TeXLive: TUG (TeX Users Group)
- MikTeX: Christian Schenk
- Note: Some consider this an advantage of TeXLive as it makes it more future-proof.
GUI for package installation
- TeXLive: Yes
- MikTeX: Yes
On-the-fly package installation
- TeXLive: No
- MikTeX: Yes
Update scheme
- TeXLive: Strict yearly releases
- MikTeX: ?
Installation process
- TeXLive:
- MikTeX:
[Criterion]
- TeXLive:
- MikTeX:
Ur Ya'ar
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The TeX Live binaries have yearly releases but updates of packages are usually available one or two days after the CTAN release. With MiKTeX it often takes a little longer, sometimes even a few weeks. – cabohah Mar 02 '23 at 12:30
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TeX Live has
texliveonfly. I've never used it, because I prefer not to need internet everywhere and therefore always do a full installation. – cabohah Mar 02 '23 at 12:33 -
TinyTeX provides on-the-fly package installation for texlive – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Mar 02 '23 at 13:05
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@cabohah so I'll add a distinction between updates of binaries and packages. – Ur Ya'ar Mar 03 '23 at 15:01
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I didn't know about the onthefly options (add-ons? Packages?) I'll check them out, thx – Ur Ya'ar Mar 03 '23 at 15:03
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@cabohah texliveonfly was written in 2011 and not maintained since then... (can't check it myself atm as I'm using distro-maintaied TeXLive) – Ur Ya'ar Mar 05 '23 at 21:37
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@samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz if I understand correctly, TinyTeX is technically a LaTeX distro of it's own, not a part of TeXLive – Ur Ya'ar Mar 05 '23 at 21:38
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@UrYa'ar tinytex uses texlive internally, it is basically a wrapper around it – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Mar 05 '23 at 21:41
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@samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz yes but if someone has TeXLive on their machine, they can't just add tinytex to it, right? They need to replace TeXLive with tinytex – Ur Ya'ar Mar 05 '23 at 21:56