{"slug": "gnu-octave", "name": "GNU Octave", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 2.981, "rising": 1.67, "first": "2025-11-25", "latest": "2026-09-17", "why": "Try GNU Octave; it is a free software alternative to MATLAB.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Try GNU Octave; it is a free software alternative to MATLAB.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "octave.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://octave.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["GNU Octave"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 795874913, "item_id": 49742182, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49742182", "by": "zackmorris", "date": "2026-09-17", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "GNU Octave for free since you really pay for toolboxes/packages", "excerpt": "I fell in love with MATLAB (or GNU Octave for free since you really pay for toolboxes/packages) back around 2004, despite it warts. So I second Julia, which is similar, but is a more modern functional language instead of imperative. I asked Google's Gemini if Julia can run on GPU unmodified without annotations, pragmas, intrinsics or similar manually-managed friction, and it said yes, but that data types must be swap", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nvidia announces native GPU programming in Rust"}, {"id": 788060528, "item_id": 49253783, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49253783", "by": "cable2600", "date": "2026-08-10", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Try GNU Octave; it is a free software alternative to MATLAB.", "excerpt": "https://octave.org/ Try GNU Octave; it is a free software alternative to MATLAB.", "context": "", "use_case": "MATLAB alternative", "switched_from": "", "story": "MATLAB programming language sinking in popularity"}, {"id": 740491377, "item_id": 46280711, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46280711", "by": "ChaitanyaPatel", "date": "2025-12-15", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "GNU Octave https://octave.org and Octave online https://octave-online.net/", "excerpt": "For MATLAB, there exist many high quality free and/r open source toolboxes from community and academia. Also there are high quality free and/or open source alternatives. GNU Octave https://octave.org and Octave online https://octave-online.net/ Freemat https://freemat.sourceforge.net/ (sadly no ongoing development) Scilab https://www.scilab.org/ and Scilab online https://cloud.scilab.in/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "In Defense of Matlab Code"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["matlab alternative"], "compared": [{"slug": "matlab", "name": "MATLAB", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49724881", "title": "Nvidia announces native GPU programming in Rust", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49253468", "title": "MATLAB programming language sinking in popularity", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46248294", "title": "In Defense of Matlab Code", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46045972", "title": "APT Rust requirement raises questions", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 795874913, "item_id": 49742182, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49742182", "by": "zackmorris", "date": "2026-09-17", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "GNU Octave for free since you really pay for toolboxes/packages", "excerpt": "I fell in love with MATLAB (or GNU Octave for free since you really pay for toolboxes/packages) back around 2004, despite it warts. So I second Julia, which is similar, but is a more modern functional language instead of imperative. I asked Google's Gemini if Julia can run on GPU unmodified without annotations, pragmas, intrinsics or similar manually-managed friction, and it said yes, but that data types must be swap", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nvidia announces native GPU programming in Rust"}, {"id": 788060528, "item_id": 49253783, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49253783", "by": "cable2600", "date": "2026-08-10", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Try GNU Octave; it is a free software alternative to MATLAB.", "excerpt": "https://octave.org/ Try GNU Octave; it is a free software alternative to MATLAB.", "context": "", "use_case": "MATLAB alternative", "switched_from": "", "story": "MATLAB programming language sinking in popularity"}, {"id": 740491377, "item_id": 46280711, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46280711", "by": "ChaitanyaPatel", "date": "2025-12-15", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "GNU Octave https://octave.org and Octave online https://octave-online.net/", "excerpt": "For MATLAB, there exist many high quality free and/r open source toolboxes from community and academia. Also there are high quality free and/or open source alternatives. GNU Octave https://octave.org and Octave online https://octave-online.net/ Freemat https://freemat.sourceforge.net/ (sadly no ongoing development) Scilab https://www.scilab.org/ and Scilab online https://cloud.scilab.in/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "In Defense of Matlab Code"}, {"id": 736752721, "item_id": 46047045, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46047045", "by": "pxc", "date": "2025-11-25", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I usually used GNU Octave for the latter", "excerpt": "What's wrong with R? I used it and liked it in undergrad. I certainly didn't use it as seriously as the users who made Python popular, but to this day I remember R fondly and would never choose Python for a personal project. My R use was self-taught, as well. I refused to use proprietary software for school all through high school and university, so I used R where we were expected to use Excel or MatLab (though I usu", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "APT Rust requirement raises questions"}]}