I would have loved to have something like this in school. I ended up paying for mathematica while working on my degree. I think IPython/Sage connected to an open-source version of Wolfram Alpha would be a Killer app. Any chance Julia would be integrated at some point?

Open source version of Alpha? That will never happen. Wolfram is the most anti-source-code person out there. He even has this diatribe about why you should not be allowed to see "his" source code:

http://reference.wolfram.com/language/tutorial/WhyYouDoNotUs...

SymPy has made a start on an open source version of Alpha, SymPy Gamma,

http://www.sympygamma.com

The biggest missing piece it's missing is the data used by Alpha. It's missing other things as well, but it's a start.

I don't know if it's too late for this, but as a matter of marketing, why not Omega instead of Gamma? Alpha was the first word on the subject. Omega will be the last.

I wasn't involved in the Gamma aspects of SymPy. At this point, Gamma is probably more appropriate.

That's odd for a business so concerned about selling to academia. You'd expect journals to reject papers where the number-crunching went through a "black box" like that.

He's known as a bit of an egomaniac. If you fancy some entertainment, go looking on reddit or whatever for testimony from former employees.

nonetheless, the man makes cool things which I think are worth their price.

He mostly claims other people's work for himself. I suppose he's a good salesman and a good huckster, that much is demonstrably true. He's also apparently competent as a mathematician somewhat, but it's doubtful how much of Mathematica really is his own work. He puts everything under his own name and sues anyone who disputes otherwise.

I wouldn't agree with any of those characterizations. I see him mention the team he has built and what they accomplish together rather frequently.

How can academics use this software without being exasperated that the name "Wolfram" is constantly shoved into their face?

Especially since the guy only wrote a fraction of the "Wolfram System" (A NEW KIND OF SYSTEM!!!).

Multiple forms of Julia integration in https://cloud.sagemath.com is very high on my list. We already have syntax highlighting for editing julia files, and Julia is installed and usable from the command line. What's missing is support for both IJulia (Ipython notebook julia) and a Julia mode for Sage worksheets.

You can try Maxima online (http://maxima-online.org/). Maxima is an open source CAS written in Common Lisp.