[jimmcslim]

It's a bit disappointing that I have to sign up for an account, there doesn't appear to be a free-tier that is completely signup free (e.g. like tryruby.org, or a plethora of similar sites). I'm not denying them the opportunity to make money, but there is a user friction issue here to even take a peek.

I wonder if folks would be less cynical about this if they gave it a name other than 'the Wolfram Language' (how about 'Sym'?)

[pohl]

I wonder if folks would be less cynical about this if they gave it a name other than 'the Wolfram Language'

That's a non-starter. Have you ever seen a copy of A New Kind of Science? Stephen figured out how to get his full name printed on every single page. That was no accident.

[taliesinb]

There will be "playgrounds" that demonstrate different features and domains for you to live-code in your browser, and those will be AFAIK signup free, but that feature isn't quite ready yet.