R Studio is browser based as well. It just happens to ship in a Chromium shell...

I would have said spyder, since that's the de facto Python IDE for data science.

But aren't both really just matlab?

Indeed. I don't like much the "looks exactly like .." comments, because (even if I sometimes do think them), similarity in interfaces is actually a great thing, as it allows more people to easily switch and pick from r/py/julia/matlab/octave/stata/spss or whatever language is more promising in other areas. In other words, it reduces the mental cost of switching.

Matlab and ipython notebook are totally different things

Nobody mentioned notebook in this thread. Maybe you clicked reply the wrong place? Spyder is the Python IDE that takes after matlab, not ipython notebook.

Nobody said it in this thread, but it was stated in the article:

> You can think of it as an alternative UI to the notebook for the IPython Kernel

Yes, but they both take inspiration from how Xerox PARC and Symbiotic REPLs used to work, or more close to modern days Dr Scheme/Racket.

R Studio, also has a browser version via R Studio Server: http://www.rstudio.com/products/RStudio/#Server