> it's just too developer intensive a task. there is so much work and not to mention IP in just Simplify[] that I don't know why people bother > the challenge

> it's just too developer intensive a task. there is so much work and not to mention IP in just Simplify[] that I don't know why people bother > the challenge that comes to mind is that undertaken by the teams that contributed to numpy, scipy, and pandas in order to be a viable alternative to Matlab. I mean, numpy/scipy/pandas are reasonably successful. And to take a larger view, open source software has made great gains in replacing not only Matlab, but SAS, SPSS, Stata and others as well. A large amount of specialized domain knowledge was required to replace those as well. What makes Mathematica out of the reach of the same forces (economic and social) that have pushed open source software into replacing Matlab/SAS/SPSS/Stata/etc.?