[clug] F/OSS Alternatives

[Jason]

Hi Matlab and maple are available for Linux (though definitely commercial)

you could try scipy as a matlab alternative:
http://www.scipy.org/NumPy_for_Matlab_Users

We use a commercial application called eagle for our circuit board design (apparently although I'm just a programmer).

http://www.cadsoft.de/

Seems this is an area that doesn't have a lot of high quality floss software. 

So how to people feel about commercial software on a floss platform? Is this a good thing or is it a open everything or we don't want to know philosophy. If there is a quality floss alternative I will use it. As a programmer who likes to eat I have a hard time believing that my company shouldn't be profiting from my hard work and I am willing to pay for a good quality piece of software that lets me do my job easier. Don't get me wrong if I thought it wouldn't hurt the company I would be pushing to open all of our code but then the only difference between us and our competitors is some rather simplistic hardware.

Hatter of freedom

Jason




On Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:33:39 +1000, Ben Chaplin <wombat at chapmac.com> wrote:

> Since the OS X thread got derailed into a "proprietary software is
> evil" thread (as is only right on a LUG mailing list!), I've been
> thinking about what my linux experience lacks.
>
> I would like F/OSS alternatives to the following:
> * PSPICE (electronics analysis)
> * Maple (Maths)
> * Matlab (Maths)
>
> Maple and Matlab aren't all that important but I'd love an alternative
> to PSPICE.
>
> Also, can anyone recommend a nice RPN calculator?  There are times
> when I find dc a little bit frustrating, so something with buttons
> that I can click would be nice.  I feel so dirty asking for graphical
> software when there's a perfectly good command line program, but oh
> well.
>
> Cheers,
> Ben