On Wed, Apr 09, 2008 at 10:38:08AM -0700, Matt Ettus wrote: > > > I think the problem is that there are basically 2 separate cultures here. > There are those coming from the CS and free software world, and those > coming from the radio, engineering, academic, industry, hardware, etc. > worlds. Those in the free software world often don't understand how truly > separate the two cultures are. While everybody has heard of Linux, they > usually haven't heard of GNU, RMS, GPL, or freedom as applied to software. > For example, I often have people talk to me about "the GNU Project", when > they really mean the GNU Radio Project, so I take the time to explain that > the GNU project is actually much bigger than just GNU Radio. > > > When someone comes here from that second world, where the lingua franca is > Matlab, and we immediately hit them with a moral argument without any > background, it doesn't help anybody, it just scares them off. I think a > better response would be something along the lines of: > > ---- > > If you are very comfortable in the Matlab world, then perhaps you should > try Octave, which has a high degree of compatibility with Matlab. A link > between GNU Radio and Octave would not be difficult at all. However, there > are many other free programs which might also function in a similar manner > and be even easier to work with, like scipy, matplotlib, and scilab. Most > people here just use GNU Radio without all that other stuff because it fits > their needs without anything else added on. Is there any particular reason > that you need to use Matlab? Is GNU Radio missing any particular features? > For a number of reasons, many people here choose not to use proprietary > software. Some of those reasons are outlined here: > > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html > > ---- > > I know that a lot of GNU Radio users and even contributors started out > using Matlab, Simulink, LabView, or other proprietary packages. If they > are scared off before they get to that point we all lose. > > Matt
Very nicely put. Thanks, Eric _______________________________________________ Discuss-gnuradio mailing list Discuss-gnuradio@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio