Re: Octave's goals and motivations (Re: GUI)

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

2011/9/29 Victor Salit <address@hidden>:
> 2011/9/29 Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <address@hidden>
>>
>> On 28 September 2011 18:40, tilas <address@hidden> wrote:
>>
>> > BTW, I do not think anyone sees Octave as "just a Matlab clone of
>> > mediocre quality". Though it is a Matlab clone
>>
>> I am almost certain that none of us working on Octave see it as a
>> Matlab clone.
>
> This is quite off-topic.

Well, if you want to understand where Octave comes from and where is
it going, you will be disappointed if you see it as a Matlab clone,
just as you will be disappointed if you see LaTeX as Microsoft Word
clone. So I don't think talking about where Octave comes from is
offtopic in the Octave maintainers' list.

> Well I believe this is a free world and everybody is free to choose
> the appropriate mix of free and non-free software tools. Including
> Non-free OS with free apps or free OS with non-free apps.

But there should be no reason to choose a non-free OS. It creates many
societal problems (DRM, spying, abusive business practices, region
lockout, malware, vendor lock-in).

All other things being equal, same functionality, same price, the only
difference if it's free or not. Would you want to choose something
that is non-free? And if you do prefer the free option, shouldn't we
work towards that free option?

> BTW, the linux world is not 100% free either.

Yeah, there are problems. But they can and should be solved.

> I really would like to see this project free of ideological wars.

It's not a war. Use whatever you like. I'm not telling you to not use
Windows. I'm just telling you that you shouldn't have any reason to do
so, and I find it sad that you do have those reasons. I would prefer a
world without Windows, so I work towards that. I wish you would work
with me too, but I suppose you have other battles to fight. We work on
free software because we think you deserve it. Up to you if you take
it or not. But we, or at least I, think you deserve it.

- Jordi G. H.