MATLAB is frequently used by logging in to a remote machine where MATLAB is installed and running, rather than on a local (e.g. desktop or laptop) computer resource. In this situation, transmitting the graphical MATLAB IDE across ssh or some other secure protocol can lead to a less than satisfactory end user experience. A way to avoid this problem is to launch MATLAB with the -nodesktop option. The -nodesktop option launches MATLAB directly within the terminal (or shell) which is open on the remote machine, and supports only the basic command line interpreter interface.

Plotting is still available under the -nodesktop option when running remotely, assuming of course that you are forwarding an X connection over ssh as well. (This is a fairly common practice, but setting up X over ssh is beyond the scope of this tutorial.) Finally, if you do not plan to do any plotting, the quickest way to start up MATLAB is to use the -nojvm option. This prevents the Java Virtual Machine from being started, significantly reducing the startup time required by MATLAB. Note that -nojvm also implies -nodesktop.