Octave
- Installing Octave on Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install octave
sudo apt-get install octave-headers
- Adding netcdf support
downloaded octcdf from http://ocgmod1.marine.usf.edu/mediawiki/index.php/NetCDF_toolbox_for_Octave
followed instructions on the site to install - which worked fine.
- Installed gnu plot
sudo apt-get install gnuplot-x11