the kernel is what matters
Fundamentally, that's true. Of course the average user isn't going to think or probably even know what a kernel is, nor I'm unsure if they even have to.
containerisation is bloat, electron is bloat
I'm not a technical expert, but while containerisation is bloat, it's modularity is a plus, I think. Conceptually I like it.
Sheesh. But I guess the thinking is that if it works, then why change it, right?
If you can do every single thing that you mentioned either online or offline but with the browser (or browser engine based applications), would you?
I'm not sure what would have happened had I insisted. I imagine that they'd probably ask us to obtain it on our own though, based on my memory that they were insistent that everybody must have it.
I see. That's a bit rough that we require proprietary software to graduate.
That's an interesting perspective actually, since it gets into all sorts of weirdness and trickiness of the intellectual property concept. Perhaps because of two factors: (i) we treat digital data as fundamentally different from physical objects, and (ii) theft intuitively implies that the original object is no longer with the owner, but with piracy, you're simply making a copy-and-paste, rather than a cut-and-paste.
I think that's ideal! It's supposed to be a lesson on numerical methods, not MATLAB.
I'm not sure how it works in the US but where I'm from, the way lessons are conducted are typically like this:
So I'm personally unfamiliar with the "shilling" of textbooks which cost up to hundreds of dollars for practically the same content, which, from what I've heard, is quite common in US colleges. This seems to be a very strange concept to me.
Yea of course but we're talking about piracy, so when we pirate proprietary software, they'll of object with "nothing is free, you gotta pay". It's either we pay for that, or fundamentally uphold piracy as some means or some ends, or use and support open-source software. Not a lot of choices, really.
I think I get that as well. I used to talk quite a bit about open-source to my friends, but looking back, it seemed quite preachy (maybe because I was quite young at the time), and it never really changed anything. This is especially the case since open-source (or free software) is a philosophical approach to technology that many people might be unfamiliar with or simply don't care about. I just simply use open-source software, supports devs/foundations, and only will talk the necessary bits if someone asks me about it.
I mentioned it to a couple of friends, but I think I didn't get it across well to them that GNU Octave is supposed to be syntactically compatible with MATLAB. Also, they're more comfortable using established software since everybody else is using them anyway.
Speaking about numerical analysis courses, I feel like one should be able to choose what programming languages they wish; the course should just aim to teach the fundamentals/principles of numerical methods, not what language to use. I get that it is much more convenient to streamline software choice, but still, why not use Python over MATLAB for undergraduate introductory courses?
Even though I'm generally for open-source software, I know that in heavy duty use, highly niche specialisations, and in industries in general it's difficult to find equally competent software. That's why I put emphasize on my specific situation, where it's an introductory course. Heck, we ended up doing what could be done in Python anyway.