You can run LaTeX on any Athena-ized workstation. Instructions for
setting up your environment and running LaTeX on these platforms
are given in section 
of this document. To get
more information on using other software available on the Athena
workstations, see the Getting Started on Athena document
available from MIT Graphic Arts, and the Inessential Guide to
Athena available from the SIPB office (W20-557).
Versions of LaTeX can be obtained many other types of machines. However, many LaTeX distributions for popular platforms are commercial packages, and their features and usage may differ. Hopefully, your LaTeX package will come with some instructions for setting it up and running it.
The version of LaTeX described in this document is version 2.09,
which is the version currently supported by Athena and SIPB. A
newer version (LaTeX ) exists, but it is somewhat
different than the version described here. We recommend that you
continue using version 2.09 until SIPB and Athena have gained some
familiarity with the new version and can satisfactorily deal with any
problems you may encounter using it. If you need to use it, LaTeX
is available in the newtex locker under the name
latex2e.