GNU Octave 5.1.0
GNU/Octave has a great strength and weakness that it uses the Matlab language. This is great for many who are educated with Matlab but don't know much else. After some time I found Python and the ecosystem around numpy/scipy/matplotlib fit my problems much better. Python just much more flexible and better suited for general programming tasks than that weird matrix oriented language.<p>Why should anyone use Octave over Matlab?<p>- Licensing cost.<p>- Freedom.<p>Why should anyone learn Octave instead of Python?<p>- It's a bit easier to get started for scientists who are not programmers.<p>- If you mostly do vector/matrix math, the language is nice.<p>- Otherwise I don't know any good point.<p>All in all I like a free alternative to Matlab but have the feeling that most people are just better served by joining the much bigger Python ecosystem. (Or maybe R/Julia/Rust which I don't know so much about in this context.)