The new JuliaPro releases (based on Julia 1.0) therefore do not bundle packages any more. The downloadable distributions contain only the compiler, the standard library, and the Juno IDE.
Even though the packages are not bundled, JuliaPro users still benefit from a curated set of packages. This is provided through the JuliaPro package registry hosted by Julia Computing.
How are those JuliaPro packages different from the regular packages?
I guess they are not linked against MKL because it’s not used.
So, what’s the difference?
The JuliaPro packages are Julia packages that are curated by Julia Computing. A curated package is a package which has a level of assurance as to its usefulness and behaviour when used with the version of Julia that accompanies JuliaPro, and makes sense within a context provided by other curated packages, and a package for which Julia Computing has implied a certain attentiveness to issues that may arise.
The JuliaPro registry contains a subset of packages from Julia’s General registry, but with an additional layer of testing and curation. The list of packages supported by the JuliaPro registry is displayed on the JuliaPro product page.
Curated packages have a very high level of satisfaction associated with their use and they have had special attention given their testing, interpackage working, robustness. The curated packages are packages available from github repositories. A specific release may be used as the current curated version of a package, and while that may or may not be the latest release – it will be a release that exists as part of the public repository.
So, yes, mix and match as much as you like; just don’t expect the same level of assurance with other packages. That said, there exist other packages that are excellent, well-documented and extensively tested. However, if you are a company doing software development, and you plan to rely on packages that are not in Julia Computing’s curation, it may pay to contact them about a support arrangement.
(I am not associated with Julia Computing, so ultimately … this is informed opinion.)