[R] Comparison between R and MATLAB

[Clint Bowman]

The easy way around that is to create an account, "Mathworks", with a
common group that all who will use MatLab belong, then su - Mathworks
should satisfy the license manager.

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On Fri, 20 Jun 2008, Earl F. Glynn wrote:

> "Shubha Vishwanath Karanth" <shubhak at ambaresearch.com> wrote in message
> news:7D44476A5833D340A0A85099D5EAD8B2832C at BAN-MAILSRV02.Amba.com...
> Can I get a comparison between R and MATLAB? How is R efficient than MATLAB?
> Or what are the weaknesses of R compared to MATLAB?
>
>
> Don't forget to compare licenses and cost.  Matlab's rigid and unreasonable
> license is the main reason I use R now.
>
> Several years ago the Mathworks refused to let a post doc and me share a
> MatLab license -- they wanted all single-user licenses to be named users
> even if each of us only needed MatLab a few hours a month.  I asked if they
> had a "math model" for what we got for a license, but they didn't care that
> there was a huge disconnect between what they wanted to sell and our usage
> needs.  I quit using MatLab, converted my project from MatLab to R, and now
> steer as many people to R as possible.
>
> The Mathworks refuses to acknowledge that life-science users of math tools
> are not like physical science users.  Biologists can spend weeks or months
> on experiments and then occasionally need high-end math tools  for analysis.
>
> A single shared network MatLab license outside of academia is outrageously
> expensive.  A single network concurrent license for Matlab and the Image
> processing, Signal Processing and PDE toolboxes costs $18,800 -- I received
> that quote just yesterday since we still have a few people that use existing
> MatLab code.
>
> MatLab may be a good product, but the Mathworks is unreasonable in how they
> license it.  We are a non-profit, basic life scientific research institute
> and the Mathworks sells us the same license as for-profit businesses.  Only
> degree-granting universities are eligible for academic pricing apparently.
>
> efg
> Earl F Glynn
> Bioinformatics
> Stowers Institute for Medical Research
>
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