dimpase

> this wouldn't necessarily guarantee that what you import from sagelib will necessarily be available or configured to work with sagelib, unless that piece you've imported has all python dependencies. Is that right?

No, not really - what you can import will be working, whether via python bindings in sagelib, or external ones. The corresponding ongoing challenge of sagelib/sagemath development is to un-vendor a lot of components currently bundled in. Debian has managed this in their own not very portable way.

Academia is about theory that is correct (and therefore potentially useful). There is a huge potential conflict of interest whenever you use a commercial stack in your research, for the providers of the stack are not really interested in providing error-free robust products. Lingering errors in Mathematica are well-documented, for instance, and all they do about them is to put up smokescreens. Does one need to wait for a huge scandal for the change of attitude here?