Merge pull request #289 from cedadev/notebook-service-newsitem

Add news item for update to JASMIN notebook service.

Author: amanning9

content/news/updates/2026/2026-02-02-notebook-service-update.md

@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+---
+title: JASMIN Notebook Service Environment Updates
+date: 2026-02-02 11:30:00
+tags: ['news', 'jasmin']
+thumbnail:
+icon: fas book text-info
+---
+Dear JASMIN Users,
+
+We are making some changes to the software environments provided by the JASMIN notebook service, in order to make it more compatible with the environment on the rest of JASMIN.
+The environments provided on the notebook service will now be identical to that provided on the sci machines and LOTUS.
+
+The new environment brings a number of advantages:
+* Environments created anywhere on JASMIN should work across the notebook service, sci machines and LOTUS.
+* We have released general availability of GPU notebooks to all users. If you need to use a GPU, select this from the start screen.
+* It is now possible to run notebooks based on any of the supported versions of Jaspy.
+* It is now possible to use JasR, JASMIN’s environment for R, in the notebook service.
+* As an experimental feature, we now have documentation on how to use Julia in the notebook service.
+* In the future, this change lays the groundwork to allow us to provide a version of Jaspy specialised for machine learning.
+
+Breaking change: it will now be possible to create a virtual environment which works across JASMIN. However, old environments which were created based on the notebook service (specifically based on the Python found in `/opt/jaspy` in the notebook service) will stop working in *one month*. You can migrate by:
+1. Activating your current environment and running `pip freeze > req.txt` .
+1. Creating a new environment according to {{<link "https://help.jasmin.ac.uk/docs/software-on-jasmin/python-virtual-environments/#in-the-jasmin-notebook-service">}}the new instructions here{{</link>}}.
+1. Running `pip install -r req.txt` in the new environment.
+
+The documentation has been updated please see:
+* {{<link "https://help.jasmin.ac.uk/docs/interactive-computing/jasmin-notebooks-service/">}}Updated description of the notebook service{{</link>}}
+* {{<link "https://help.jasmin.ac.uk/docs/software-on-jasmin/conda-environments-and-python-virtual-environments/">}}General info about conda environments{{</link>}}
+* {{<link "https://help.jasmin.ac.uk/docs/software-on-jasmin/python-virtual-environments/#in-the-jasmin-notebook-service">}}How to create a virtual environment and turn it into a Jupyter kernel{{</link>}}