Is that the real reason? Isn&#x27;t it more that it just didn&#x27;t get enough traction?<p>MATLAB has cashed in and they don&#x27;t have a free version. Octave isn&#x27;t eating their lunch.<p>And it&#x27;s not like the C&#x2F;C++ guys made a ton of cashmoney - so &quot;just make it free&quot; isn&#x27;t generally a viable business model