Downloading AMPL and friends from Netlib

You can obtain student versions of AMPL and the CPLEX, MINOS, and SNOPT optimization solvers from the Netlib repository of mathematical software. Go to http://www.netlib.org/ampl/student and choose the appropriate architecture/OS for your system.

ampl: This is the engine that interprets LP and NLP models and mediates between you and the solvers.
cplex: This is a solver for mixed integer/linear programs and quadratic programs.
minos: This is a solver that will handle linear programs and nonlinear programs with only linear constraints. I suggest you stick with CPLEX for LP and MIP since CPLEX is the more powerful code.
snopt: This is a solver for general nonlinear programs.

Installation instructions for Unix/Linux

You should download the files ampl.gz, snopt.gz, minos.gz, and cplex.tgz. There is a chance your browser may automatically uncompress the files, in which case you'll likely have files named

  ampl
  cplex.tar
  minos
  snopt

If your browser didn't unzip the files, you'll need to do so, using

  gunzip ampl.gz
  gunzip minos.gz
  gunzip cplex.tar
  tar xvf cplex.tar

Now change the protection modes for the executables:

  chmod 700 ampl minos cplex

You should then move ampl and minos to a directory that is on your search path for executables. The typical Unix/Linux directory for these would be ~/bin.

Then type

  rehash
  ampl

and see if you start AMPL. You can exit AMPL by typing

  quit