My experience is little bit outdated ( 6 years to be specific) I used to work for a Hedge Fund and all models are/were in R and Excel. Today, I still use R for my personal investments.
Octave is 99.999% compatible with Matlab, except for some graphics stuff, which are not difficult to adapt to octave. I can't help you with politics/stupidity, I only hope the current economic conditions creates an increased attention to FOSS. balu raman, morrisville, vt On 10/9/08, Mike Raley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Richard, > > While I am not in scientific computing anymore, while working at the CFA > (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/) I can say our shop was probably 75%+ FOSS > (Note: I'm counting solaris in this, even tho it's debatable) After I left, > from what I understand it's gone even more (eg, solaris replaced w/ fedora, > or other linux distros) although, just about any laptop which is purchased > is a Mac. In every research institution I have ever worked at/with, FOSS > has played a major role. However, most researchers I know will use the best > tool for the job. If it happens to be Matlab, it's Matlab, if it happens to > be Perl, it's Perl. They don't care, as long as it get's the job done, and > doesn't break the bank on their research grants. > > However, there is a difference in mindset I've found between the "hard" and > "soft" sciences that tends to lead one towards FOSS and one towards > proprietary applications, but YMMV. > > Good luck w/ Matlab! I'm not sorry to know there's a 99% chance I'll never > have to use it again! > > Mike > > > > > --- On Thu, 10/9/08, Richard Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> From: Richard Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> Subject: Anyone using FOSS for scientific computing? >> To: [email protected] >> Date: Thursday, October 9, 2008, 12:49 PM >> Hi everyone, >> >> I have a topic to throw out for discussion, if anyone is >> interested: >> how many of you are using FOSS for academic or scientific >> computing? >> Have you been successful with it? Do you find yourselves >> fighting a >> tide of money, bureaucracy, etc., or is your environment >> more receptive >> to FOSS than perhaps the general public is? >> >> I'm thinking of Numpy/Scipy here, Octave, R, etc. as >> alternatives to >> things like Matlab and SPSS. >> >> I ask because I recently moved to Philadelphia to start a >> job as a >> programmer and research coordinator in a psychology lab. I >> accepted the >> job largely because I thought I would be working in Python, >> writing FOSS >> data analysis programs that would be used both in this lab >> and >> distributed freely. As it turns out, my lab is extremely >> Matlab focused >> (which means that any code I write can't be run by >> anyone who doesn't >> pay the $$$$ for the proprietary Matlab license, unless I >> spend time >> making it compatible with Octave), and the principal >> investigator >> consistently chides me for pushing for greater Python and >> Octave use. >> (Yesterday, he said, "Your first name is Richard...but >> your last name's >> not Stallman, right?") He also has what I consider to >> be slightly >> suspect ideas about what it means to be a steward of >> taxpayer dollars. >> >> All of this is a little odd to me, because according to lab >> lore, at one >> time you weren't allowed to graduate if you had never >> compiled a kernel. >> Now, we're all on OS X. >> >> Have others encountered this scenario? Did you have any >> success pushing >> back? Do you have a persuasive counter-argument to the >> "pragmatism, not >> idealism" sentiment that has apparently won out here? >> >> Richard > > > >
