Does miniforge/mambaforge use Anaconda?

[ning-y]

In particular, does use of miniforge/mambaforge constitute some form of use of Anaconda such that users are under Anaconda ToS? If so, is there a way to avoid Anaconda altogether, while using miniforge/mambaforge?

I ask because of recent reports of Anaconda suing academic institutions for using their software (?):

• https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/08/anaconda_puts_the_squeeze_on/
• https://x.com/NM_Reid/status/1825997577151525338
• Hearsay from a colleague

[jaimergp]

miniforge comes preconfigured with conda-forge as the default channel. So if you don't alter this configuration, it won't touch defaults. Do note that:

• If you type -c defaults in any conda install (or create, update, remove) command, you will be querying and potential pulling packages from Anaconda from that moment on (in that environment).
• conda config --set channels ... might reinject defaults due to an unfortunate side effect of how the configuration system works in conda

Always check the output of conda config --show-sources to make sure defaults is not mentioned. The output of conda-libmamba-solver will also reveal which channels are being queried.

[jakirkham]

Maybe we should write up an answer in the FAQ of this repo's README. Then close any similar ToS question with a link to that answer

To be clear think Jaime's answer above is good enough to put in that FAQ. We can always tweak later as needed

[pgunn]

One way to solve this that would give a lot of institutions a good way to enforce policy would be for conda-forge's channels to be stored on a different server that does not have the defaults channel; that way, DNS and IP based blocking routes could be used for orgs to prevent any of their users (who may not be aware of policy) from using defaults.