Ask HN: Python as Matlab replacement, where to start?

This is somehwat inspired by the thread on Rodeo [1] mainly because it made my urge to get this sorted out just bigger. Here's the situation: I'm relatively new to Python and have only used it for simple things. From reading around here and elsewhere I know there's a myriad of interesting features out here, like people dropping Matlab completely in favour of free Python-based solutions. The latter is also basically what would be super interesting to get some things done in a company I work for: Matlab licenses aren't exactly cheap, and all networked, and tied to a hostname, and license servers only accessible from within the intranet or else through VPN etc, you get the picture.

So I'm looking for something I can just drop (preferrably portable installation) on a Windows or Linux machine, fire up, feed some 1D signals into and then use for very basic on-the-fly analysis (most used commands in Matlab would be diff,hist,plot,std,mean,xcorr,interp). That 'something' should interpret Python, have matplotlib/numpy/scipy/wahetever needed to fullfill the requirements, if it's an IDE that's ok but not required, and it should be sort of 'major' in that it's in pre-alpha stage with too many bugs and no certainty it will still exist in 5 years.

A week or to ago I started a search for this but gave up because the sheer amount of choices just seemed too overwhelming, and the differences between them too unclear. Anaconda/Miniconda/PyCharm/Canopy/Spyder/IPython Notebook/... So I just downloaded Anaconda, and managed to get something on a plot but I'm still not sure what the whole of Anaconda actually is - I just know somehow it can get me a Python commandline which has matplotlib etc - let alone I know it's the best fit for us.

Hence the question: what would HN recommend in this case?

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10809216