Fwd: Re: The future of Octave

[Jonathan Drews]

Hi Octave Users and Developers:

> On Thu, 7 Dec 2000, John W. Eaton wrote:
>   Free software needs a vision beyond reimplementation of existing
>    proprietary tools.  Those of us who are interested in free software
>    tools must become leaders rather than followers, and I am optimistic
>    that this can happen for numerical software.  But I don't believe it
>    can happen if Octave continues down its current path.

 I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment. If I wanted a cheap version of
Matlab I would get someone to by it for me at a college bookstore. I think
Octave is terrific the way it is. I did not switch to Linux because I wanted a
more stable platform for M$ applications. Furthermore I don't see what the big
hassle is in switching applications you wrote for Matlab to Octave. Just
re-write them.  A) They will probably run better and B) you may be able to do a
better job during the rewrite.

 I don't want my software crippled because it has to imitate some contraption
thought up by businessmen. I want Open Source to exploit the advantages
latent in UNIX. Truth be told Matlab is sold to make money; it's scientific
utility is a side show. The reason they charge $1400.00  for it, is until Linux
came around M$ was the only game in town. In contrast Octave is probably
developed by peer review and not by businessman, who place profits above
scientific prowess. Finally what are you going to do if Matlab, with it's
closed source code goes out of business. If your research depends on Matlab,
you are doomed then. 

  BTW I actually got a freind to get me Matlab from a college bookstore. He
paid the reasonable price for it: $ 4.99. 



-------------------------------------------------------------
Octave is freely available under the terms of the GNU GPL.

Octave's home on the web:  http://www.octave.org
How to fund new projects:  http://www.octave.org/funding.html
Subscription information:  http://www.octave.org/archive.html
-------------------------------------------------------------