Octave is a pretty good alternative, but being able to install it on Linux based OSs is definitely something I'd love to have when I was in college. They required MatLab for a lot of assignments.
00WarLok00
Can you make a guide on installing airexplorer on Linux
I'm not saying it's not good, it'll be useful for a lot of people I believe, but bear in mind that "installable" does not mean free software. Matlab is still closed source, so I'm not even considering it as an alternative. I find embarrassing that in academic environment they would recommend software against openness and learning.
Honestly, I agree with you. Forcing my hand on windows to use matlab is just as bad as forcing it on matlab in the first place. Even worse is them using the tax payer money to buy matlab licenses, all of that blindly ignoring octave as an "inferior option" without ever even testing it. Still, no matlab means no grade, and therefore no diploma. Same thing for MS Office documents, Autocad, Solidworks, and several other mandatory proprietary programs. We could only pay for them, or pirate them. I hear things there are better now though.
Yes, definitely, it's outrageous. I'm not even talking about working environment, I'm talking about schools/universities, places where people freedom must be respected even more and where creating an open ecosystem is key for learning. Now things are going in the right direction, I find myself more comfortable using free software 99% of the time compared to close source software. Sadly Matlab vs Octave lays in that 1% where there is still a lot of work to do, a huge time gap between the two projects and a lot of money gap to be filled before Octave will represent the superior product. All the free software programs have managed to outperform closed source software over the years. It's just a matter of time.
Forcing my hand on windows to use matlab is just as bad as forcing it on matlab in the first place. Even worse is them using the tax payer money to buy matlab licenses, all of that blindly ignoring octave as an "inferior option" without ever even testing it.
Still, no matlab means no grade, and therefore no diploma. Same thing for MS Office documents, Autocad, Solidworks, and several other mandatory proprietary programs. We could only pay for them, or pirate them. I hear things there are better now though.
I'm not even talking about working environment, I'm talking about schools/universities, places where people freedom must be respected even more and where creating an open ecosystem is key for learning.
Now things are going in the right direction, I find myself more comfortable using free software 99% of the time compared to close source software. Sadly Matlab vs Octave lays in that 1% where there is still a lot of work to do, a huge time gap between the two projects and a lot of money gap to be filled before Octave will represent the superior product. All the free software programs have managed to outperform closed source software over the years. It's just a matter of time.