[analog31]

I'm not a Matlab user, but from what I can tell, even if the language can be cloned, there's a lot more to Matlab: It's a GUI driven software suite, with a lot of pre-written apps that eliminate the need for coding in many cases.

It comes with vendor support and "official-ness" for lack of a better word.

Things are changing rapidly in this area but it wasn't very long ago that most people reacted to open-source software as something weird that shouldn't be trusted.