4 ms·
> If Google wanted to do the world a big favor, gain itself some serious PR points, and perhaps increase its supply of potential math-savvy engineers two decade
by pdog 13y ago
> If Google wanted to do the world a big favor, gain itself some serious PR points, and perhaps increase its supply of potential math-savvy engineers two decades hence, it ought to buy Wolfram Research, continue to fund WR's work, and release Mathematica as free software backed by an open development process. Maybe this feat is too big for Google to pull off. Maybe it would take a consortium -- Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and IBM together -- but maybe it could happen.
What? Why not develop a Mathematica alternative?
- tmoertel 13y agoThat's an option. But it would probably set the world back a decade, maybe two, compared to freeing Mathematica. Even if your Mathematica replacement were ready today, it would take years and years and years to gain enough mindshare to begin overtaking Mathematica. The benefit of freeing Mathematica, then, is that it's already dominant. No need to wait out the ever-so-slow shifting of mindshare.
- dragonwriter 13y ago> What? Why not develop a Mathematica alternative? Or "adopt" one of the existing open source projects developed as Mathematica alternatives.