Hacker News Reader

Comment by newaccount74 | Hacker News Reader

You are misrepresenting my comment by removing essential qualifiers: It's worth it if you use it daily as part of your job.

There are plenty of jobs where Mathematica would be useful occasionally, but not every day. For these cases, the software is overpriced.

View on HN

It can also be worth it when used outside of jobs and occasionally - in the same way that a bike or a blender or a day at a spa can be worth it. I wouldn’t say that a blender is “ridiculously expensive” because I don’t care much about smoothies.

If I wanted to buy a Mathematica license for my use case (hobby stuff, use it for my job maybe two times a year) it would cost me around 5000€. If that isn't ridiculously expensive, I don't know what else to call it.

I think I misunderstood your first comment - I thought you found the "home and hobby" license ridiculously expensive.

I'm not sure what that 5000€ refers to. The standard licence is 3880+VAT (I guess that's what you meant), the annual one half that price.

If you look at it as

  "hobby stuff" 500
  "use it for my job maybe two times a year" 4500 extra

maybe the "home and hobby" license makes more sense for your use case - use it "cheap" for hobby even though you cannot justify paying the full price for work. That's why that license was introduced in the first place!

One could also say that a 5000€ A0 printer is "ridiculously expensive" because you want to print only a couple of posters. While you would be better off going to a print shop it doesn't necessarily indicate any problem with the pricing of the machine.

Depending where you are and what you income is, €447 is a lot of money to spend on a hobby.

That costs more than a month's rent in some European cities https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/region_prices_by_city?...

Well, in that context one can also say that a €447 pair of shoes is ridiculously expensive, a €447 bike is ridiculously expensive, a €447 telephone is ridiculously expensive, etc.

> €447 pair of shoes is ridiculously expensive

Well, at this point it's not even ridiculously expensive; €100 would be ridiculously expensive already.

> a €447 bike is ridiculously expensive

Nah, a good bike can easily cost as much; it's an investment similar to buying car.

> a €447 telephone is ridiculously expensive

It is and it baffles me people are willing to spend even more.

A pair of shoes, a bike or a phone will be used a lot more, and with no license restrictions, than a hobbyist copy of Mathematica.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com