Installing scientific software can often be a frustrating process. Between admin privileges, system compatibility, and inevitable troubleshooting, molecular modelers often spend more time configuring tools than doing research. If you’ve encountered admin barriers—especially in institutional or academic settings where you don’t have full system privileges—you know how painful it can be to set up complex modeling environments.
Fortunately, SAMSON, the integrative platform for molecular design, has a user-friendly solution: it can be installed and run without admin rights. This means you can get started with advanced modeling and simulation tools without needing special permissions from IT departments or risking changes to system-wide software settings.
What You Need (and Don’t Need)
SAMSON is designed to run on a wide range of systems with minimal setup:
- No administrator privileges required: SAMSON installs in the user’s home directory and specifically avoids admin mode for security and transparency.
- Supported OS: Windows 10/11, macOS 12+ (including Intel and ARM chips), and popular Linux distributions like Ubuntu 22.04+, Fedora 42+, and CentOS.
- Hardware requirements: A 64-bit OS and a graphics card that supports OpenGL 4.1. You’ll also need up-to-date graphics drivers from NVIDIA or AMD (or Apple’s equivalents).
Note for virtual machine users: if you plan to run SAMSON in a VM, make sure the virtual environment has GPU acceleration enabled to meet OpenGL requirements.
Installing on Your System
Visit the SAMSON download page and sign in or create an account. Once downloaded:
Windows
Just double-click the installer. No admin privileges needed. SAMSON gets installed in your C:/Users/<your_username>/OneAngstrom/SAMSON-Application/ folder. Launch it from your Start menu or directly from the installation folder.
macOS
Drag SAMSON to your Applications folder. It will typically be located in $HOME/Applications/SAMSON.app/. You can launch it from Spotlight or Launchpad.
Linux
Make the installer executable and run it:
|
1 2 |
chmod +x ./SAMSON-Setup.run QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb ./SAMSON-Setup.run |
SAMSON installs itself in ~/OneAngstrom/SAMSON-Application/. You can start it with the provided shell script:
|
1 |
./SAMSON-Core.sh |
Or make a shortcut with:
|
1 |
alias samson='$HOME/OneAngstrom/SAMSON-Application/9.0.0/Binaries/SAMSON-Core.sh' |
Additional Notes for Linux Users
If SAMSON doesn’t start or crashes, especially on clean systems, you may be missing some system libraries. For example, Ubuntu users may need the following:
|
1 |
sudo apt install libxcb-cursor0 libatomic1 |
CentOS-like systems may require:
|
1 |
sudo dnf install xcb-util* |
Refer to the Linux OpenGL troubleshooting guide if graphical issues persist.
One Less Barrier to Start Modeling
By eliminating the need for admin rights during setup, SAMSON offers a rare convenience for scientists and students who want to focus on modeling, visualization, and simulation—not chasing permissions or configuring environments. That’s one less hurdle between you and publishing your next paper or creating the next molecular innovation.
To learn more about installation and platform requirements, visit the official SAMSON Getting Started guide.
SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can get started at https://www.samson-connect.net.