I havent used Matlab (or Octave) for 20 years. I assumed by now that Python would have caught up and overtaken with all of the scientific/mathematic/computing libraries.
Not by a long stretch. There is one single toolbox that I use which requires MATLAB to run. The toolbox itself is under GPL, and it’s fantastic work, but the authors don’t have the time and resources to port it to pythonz and it’s the only reason why I (begrudgingly) use MATLAB at all.
I’m in the exact same position.
The moat is also external libraries, documentation, teacher materials and youtubers from India making incredibly specific videos on your exact niche subject.
In Octaves case many of these start to be covered, I did some courses back in Uni fully with Octave, but I couldn’t do all.
Locked in software also stifles innovation of the soft itself.
But as usual, FOSS must be done by sweat and tears without pay, so it usually takes a while.
That’s the thing. I think FOSS’ main competitive disadvantage is the lack of money. Because money gets things moving/written, fast.
I believe the only reasons MATLAB persists are Simulink and a C code generation engine that outputs embeddable code that conforms to some regulation or other in the engineering world. Does gnu octave have similar features? I’ve spent a while looking fruitlessly for python-based alternatives…
Wonder how Rust changes that game - honestly easier to learn than MATLAB…
Honestly who even needs octave unless you are trying to run someone else’s Matlab? Numpy and ipython notebooks are superior to both in literally every way.
Matlab’s moat is that their shit mostly* just works, and most people uaing matlab arent the same ones writing the check. Basically no dependency hell, no random broken libraries, no 30 different 3rd party options that for the same thing. If matlab has it, it almost always works, as expected, and they’ll sell it to you and give you support if you have a problem. Stay inside Mathworks domain, you’ll have a pretty good time. Basically I’m saying matlab follows the zen of python better than Guido does
As someone who has swapped from matlab to python, mathworks puts in real work from all the money they pull in. Shits expensive, but you get like… 50% of what you pay for. Even better if someone else pays. We did it for the money savings, but it definitely cost us extra dev time doing dependency management and version upgrade testing, and all kinds of little things.
*I got some issues with how they changed how figures are rendered, and that generally was causing issues during the changeover.
$500/yr is not that much.
people aren’t usually paying for these licenses, their employers are.
When was the last time you were a student?
Also, there is a reason you want students to use your product before hit the work place, as they bring the interest in the product.
about 2 years ago, why?
You make me remember a dude when I was a student who berated others who had cash problems (we all had the same state loans), turns out his parents funneled him 7.000SKR every month on top of what we all got.
people aren’t usually paying for these licenses, their employers are.
For the average employee yes, but this disadvantages entrepreneurs, unemployed people who want to develop their skills, independent researchers, etc.
agreed!
You have a point here. It’s not so much the employees are choosing the software. Employers are telling the Employees which software they have invested in.
