Comment (by Steven R. Brandt):

You have a point about the mpich vs. openmpi thing, though the users should not be able to tell the difference. As for getting a terminal, the notebook server lets you do that. When you first login, click on "New" on the right hand side of the screen and select Terminal. Poof. You have a terminal.

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Ticket URL: https://bitbucket.org/einsteintoolkit/tickets/issues/2234/trouble-in-the-tutorial-server