# Installing Atom

Atom is supported on Python 2.7, and 3.4+. Installing it is a straight-forward process. There are three approaches to choose from.

## The easy way: Pre-compiled packages

The easiest way to install atom is through pre-compiled packages. Atom is distributed pre-compiled in two-forms.

### Conda packages

If you use the Anaconda Python distribution platform (or Miniconda, its lighter-weight companion), the latest release of Atom can be installed using conda from the default channel or the conda-forge channel:

    $ conda install atom

    $ conda install atom -c conda-forge

### Wheels

If you don’t use Anaconda, you can install Atom pre-compiled, through PIP, for most common platforms:

    $ pip install atom

## Compiling it yourself: The Hard Way

Building atom from scratch requires Python and a C++ compiler. On Unix platform getting a C++ compiler properly configured is generally straighforward. On Windows, starting with Python 3.6 the free version of the Microsoft toolchain should work out of the box. Installing atom is then as simple as:

    $ pip install .

Note

For MacOSX users on OSX Mojave, one needs to set MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET to higher than 10.9 to force teh compiler to use the new C++ stdlib:

    $ export MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.10

## Supported Platforms

Atom is known to run on Windows, OSX, and Linux; and compiles cleanly with MSVC, Clang, GCC, and MinGW. If you encounter a bug, please report it on the Issue Tracker.