Lightning installation instructions improvements

.github/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -75,8 +75,11 @@
 
 ### Documentation
 
+* The installation instructions for all lightning plugins have been improved.
+  [(#848)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/848)
+
 * Updated the README and added citation format for Lightning arxiv preprint.
-  [#818](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/818)
+  [(#818)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane-lightning/pull/818)
 
 ### Bug fixes
 

README.rst

 .. include:: ../../README.rst 
 .. include:: ../../README.rst 
@@ -77,27 +77,16 @@ The following table summarizes the supported platforms and the primary installat
 Lightning-Qubit installation
 ****************************
 
-PyPI wheels (pip)
-=================
-
-Lightning plugins can be installed using ``pip`` as follows
-
-.. code-block:: console
-
-    $ pip install pennylane-lightning
-
-The above command will install the Lightning-Qubit plugin (the default since it is most broadly supported).
-In order to install the Lightning-GPU and Lightning-Kokkos (OpenMP) backends, you can respectively use the following commands:
-
-.. code-block:: console
-
-    $ pip install pennylane-lightning[gpu]
-    $ pip install pennylane-lightning[kokkos]
-
+Lightning-Qubit comes pre-installed with PennyLane. Please follow our `installation instructions <https://pennylane.ai/install/#high-performance-computing-and-gpus>`_ to install PennyLane.
 
 Install from source
 ===================
 
+.. note::
+
+    The below contains instructions for installing Lightning Qubit ***from source***. For most cases, *this is not required* and one can simply use the `installation instructions at pennylane.ai/install <https://pennylane.ai/install>`_.
+    If those instructions do not work for you, or you have a more complex build environment that requires building from source, then consider reading on.
+
 To build Lightning plugins from source you can run
 
 .. code-block:: console
@@ -222,19 +211,15 @@ The C++ code can be tested with
 Lightning-GPU installation
 **************************
 
-Lightning-GPU can be installed using ``pip``:
-
-.. code-block:: console
-
-    pip install pennylane-lightning[gpu]
-
-Lightning-GPU requires CUDA 12 and the `cuQuantum SDK <https://developer.nvidia.com/cuquantum-sdk>`_ (only the `cuStateVec <https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuquantum/latest/custatevec/index.html>`_ library is required).
-The SDK may be installed within the Python environment ``site-packages`` directory using ``pip`` or ``conda`` or the SDK library path appended to the ``LD_LIBRARY_PATH`` environment variable.
-Please see the `cuQuantum SDK`_ install guide for more information.
+For the majority of cases, Lightning-GPU can be installed by following our installation instructions at `pennylane.ai/install <https://pennylane.ai/install/#high-performance-computing-and-gpus>`_.
 
 Install Lightning-GPU from source
 =================================
 
+.. note::
+    The below contains instructions for installing Lightning-GPU ***from source***. For most cases, *this is not required* and one can simply use the `installation instructions at pennylane.ai/install <https://pennylane.ai/install/#high-performance-computing-and-gpus>`_.
+    If those instructions do not work for you, or you have a more complex build environment that requires building from source, then consider reading on.
+
 To install Lightning-GPU from the package sources using the direct SDK path, Lightning-Qubit should be install before Lightning-GPU:
 
 .. code-block:: console
@@ -304,15 +289,16 @@ The C++ code is tested with
 Lightning-Kokkos installation
 *****************************
 
-On linux systems, ``lightning.kokkos`` with the OpenMP backend can be installed by providing the optional ``[kokkos]`` tag:
-
-.. code-block:: console
-
-    $ pip install pennylane-lightning[kokkos]
+On most Linux systems, Lightning-Kokkos can be installed via Spack or Docker by following our installation instructions at `pennylane.ai/install <https://pennylane.ai/install/#high-performance-computing-and-gpus>`_.
 
 Install Lightning-Kokkos from source
 ====================================
 
+.. note::
+
+    The below contains instructions for installing Lightning-Kokkos ***from source***. For most cases, one can install Lightning-Kokkos via Spack or Docker by the `installation instructions at pennylane.ai/install <https://pennylane.ai/install/#high-performance-computing-and-gpus>`_.
+    If those instructions do not work for you, or you have a more complex build environment that requires building from source, then consider reading on.
+
 As Kokkos enables support for many different HPC-targeted hardware platforms, ``lightning.kokkos`` can be built to support any of these platforms when building from source.
 
 We suggest first installing Kokkos with the wanted configuration following the instructions found in the `Kokkos documentation <https://kokkos.github.io/kokkos-core-wiki/building.html>`_.
@@ -366,12 +352,14 @@ Note that ``THREADS`` backend is not recommended since `Kokkos does not guarante
 
 Lightning-Tensor installation
 *****************************
+
 Lightning-Tensor requires CUDA 12 and the `cuQuantum SDK <https://developer.nvidia.com/cuquantum-sdk>`_ (only the `cutensornet <https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuquantum/latest/cutensornet/index.html>`_ library is required).
 The SDK may be installed within the Python environment ``site-packages`` directory using ``pip`` or ``conda`` or the SDK library path appended to the ``LD_LIBRARY_PATH`` environment variable.
 Please see the `cuQuantum SDK <https://developer.nvidia.com/cuquantum-sdk>`_ install guide for more information.
 
 Install Lightning-Tensor from source
 ====================================
+
 Lightning-Qubit should be installed before Lightning-Tensor:
 
 .. code-block:: console

doc/dev/installation.rst

@@ -1,26 +1,37 @@
 Installation
 ############
 
-Each device in the Lightning ecosystem is a separate Python package. Select the device below for installation instructions:
+Lightning Qubit comes with installing PennyLane. Please follow our `installation instructions on pennylane.ai <https://pennylane.ai/install/>`_ to install PennyLane.
+
+In most cases, installing Lightning GPU and Lightning Kokkos can be done by following our `high-performance computing installation instructions <https://pennylane.ai/install/#high-performance-computing-and-gpus>`_.
+
+Install from source
+**********************
+
+.. note::
+   In cases where our `general installation instructions <https://pennylane.ai/install/>`_ 
+   do not suffice, please consider reading on.
+
+Select the device below for detailed source-installation instructions:
 
 .. title-card::
    :name: Lightning Qubit
-   :description: Guidelines to installing and testing the Lightning Qubit device.
+   :description: Detailed guidelines to installing and testing the Lightning Qubit device.
    :link: ../lightning_qubit/installation.html
 
 .. title-card::
    :name: Lightning GPU
-   :description: Guidelines to installing and testing the Lightning GPU device
+   :description: Detailed guidelines to installing and testing the Lightning GPU device
    :link: ../lightning_gpu/installation.html
 
 .. title-card::
    :name: Lightning Kokkos
-   :description: Guidelines to installing and testing the Lightning Kokkos device
+   :description: Detailed guidelines to installing and testing the Lightning Kokkos device
    :link: ../lightning_kokkos/installation.html
 
 .. title-card::
    :name: Lightning Tensor
-   :description: Guidelines to installing and testing the Lightning Tensor device
+   :description: Detailed guidelines to installing and testing the Lightning Tensor device
    :link: ../lightning_tensor/installation.html
 
 .. raw:: html

pennylane_lightning/core/_version.py

@@ -16,4 +16,4 @@
    Version number (major.minor.patch[-label])
 """
 
-__version__ = "0.38.0-dev29"
+__version__ = "0.38.0-dev30"