Why/when should I prefer MATLAB over Octave?

Question

In our shoestring operation we need to prototype algorithms in some higher-level language before committing to a C implementation on embedded hardware.

So far we hav

Answer 1

It's interesting to see how the open source alternative works for statistics but not for numerical analysis. R (the octave of statistics) is nowadays much popular than the commercial S-plus (the matlab of statistics). The issues mentioned as reasons not to switch away from matlab found in the other answers were also applicable to R. But still everybody just started contributing and now R is the standard, with better graphics, better packages and no more vendor lock-in.

So you could prefer octave over matlab as well, if you can step over the prisoners dilemma.