Octave impression

[Andrey Romanenko]

Hello,

The other day I was watching the video of a talk about the use of free 
software (Debian in particular) in science and research given by Helen 
Faulkner at the latest Debconf (http://www.debconf.org/debconf5/).

Many (but not all) from the audience had the opinion that Octave is 
significantly worse than 
Matlab. Some mentioned certain features that are indeed not available in 
Octave (such as Simulink), but others mentioned the lack of sparse matrix 
engine, a feature that has been implemented in Octave for some time. This 
shows that apparently there is a big gap between what Octave is now and what 
people, besides the maintainers and very active users, think it is. Looks like 
Octave needs some positive "PR", especially in such areas as science, R&D and 
education. It could enlarge the users base, which is important for a free 
software project and maybe even net some funding for further development. 
John's idea to have a workshop looks right in light of this. Stefan's talk is 
another good example. What other ways to "promote" Octave could be effective? 
Thanks!

Andrey
 



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