This software isn't for people looking for a shiny Cocoa-application. It's for people looking for a top-of-the-line mathematical and computational tool. I've yet to come across any software that can compare with Matlab in this regard, it's amazing.

Its language is very easy to work with, well designed. People with limited programming experience should be able to pick it up easily.

The built-in documentation is top class as well. I've compared it with Mathematica's documentation, and it blows it away. It's easy to search, comprehensive, and the examples work.

Matlab makes it painfully easy to manipulate and visualize data, and run various experiments. Its full capabilities are rarely tapped, as it can even integrate with various other languages. If you're looking for a product that makes it easy to do hard things, look no further.