Overleaf Instance

About

At overleaf.maxchernoff.ca, I'm hosting an instance of the open-source Overleaf Community Edition. This instance is (somewhat) open to the public, but all registrations must be manually processed.

If you're too lazy to read further, then email overleaf@maxchernoff.ca to request an account. But you really should keep reading for some important caveats.

Features and Limitations

Up-to-date TeX Live

The TeX Live distribution at overleaf.maxchernoff.ca is updated daily, while overleaf.com only updates their TeX Live distribution once a year. This means that your documents will always compile using the latest package updates, but it also means that a document that compiled one day might not compile the next.

Unlimited compile times

There is no time limit on the compile time of your documents, so you can easily compile large documents that contain many TikZ pictures. This also means that a buggy document might never finish compiling, so you should keep an eye on your compiler progress.

Unlimited collaborators

There are no restrictions on the number of people that you can share your projects with, provided that everyone has an account on overleaf.maxchernoff.ca.

Ran on a single server

All of maxchernoff.ca is hosted on a single server and isn't backed up anywhere, so if the server goes down, then you're out of luck. That being said, the server is located in a dedicated data center and uses a fairly robust configuration, so you'll probably be fine.

Ran by a single person

I'm the only one who has access to the server, so if something breaks while I'm busy with schoolwork, then it might be a while before I have time to fix it. This also means that if I lose interest in maintaining the server, then it might go down forever.

User Requirements

To request an account, you must meet one of the following criteria:

• I personally know you somehow. We don't need to be close, but I should at least recognize your name.

• You're a Math or Physics student at the University of Calgary. In this case, please send your account request from your @ucalgary.ca address.

• You're an active member of the TeX community. This is awfully vague, but if this applies, you should generally be able to send me a link to one of your packages on CTAN, a publication in TUGboat, a link to your TeX Stack Exchange profile, or something similar.

If you're unsure, just ask and I'll probably say yes.

Policies

Once you have an account, you're free to use the service however you want, whether it be for school, work, or personal projects. Of course, the standard disclaimer still applies: if you somehow annoy me, then I might disable your account.

Also, the server isn't very secure, so please don't use it to mine Bitcoin 😀.

Registration

Still interested? To register for an account, please email me at overleaf@maxchernoff.ca and I'll register an account for you. Keep in mind that I need to manually register each account, so it might take a day or two for me to get back to you.